


Solo Player

by Greenninjagal



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: AOH, Alternate Universe - Video Game World, F/M, Friendship, Guilds and such, Hackers, It's not that Nico isn't gay, Leo is too good for this, Like SAO only better??, Near Death Experiences, Percy is a Dork, Swords, There's just no Will Solace for him to be gay with, Trapped in a video game, Tyson is adorable, Valiant Hero Mode, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-03-31 21:37:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 50,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13983810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greenninjagal/pseuds/Greenninjagal
Summary: In a world where virtual realities allow anyone to be anything, Percy Jackson has only one goal: Win the Fifty Million Dollar prize at the end of the Age Of Heroes (AOH) tournament held by the game makers. All he has to do is eliminate the other eleven digital teams in the tournament. But his plan gets a wrench thrown in to it when a major Hacking group, The Titans, take over the game coding and change the rules.It's no longer a game; it's real life.In a world where virtual realities allow anyone to be anything, Percy Jackson will prove to be the greatest Solo Player ever... or he'll die trying.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There are never enough of these types of AUs so I guess I'll just make my own.

Percy spit blood out of his mouth. The metallic taste burned his senses as the next punch came before he could move.

He didn't even realize his body left the ground until he hit it again with a force that was crippling. His vision broke but he he had enough sense to roll out of the way. A fist slammed into the space he'd just been, breaking the polished floor that wasn't supposed to be penetrable. Percy went for his sword.

"What are you gonna do with that toothpick, Prissy?" The taunt came to him faster than the next move, a right hook that was strong enough to remove his head from his shoulders.

Percy smirked. He might not be the best hand-to-hand fighter, but he was a good swordsman. The girl in front of him had no clue what was coming for her. She was huge, but that meant nothing. A red bandanna pulled her light brown hair back and her crooked teeth were framed in a signature smirk that everyone from the Ares Guild had, from one too many combat fights. Her eyes were dark and beady like a pigs. 

Percy bent at his knees, unsheathing the sword that he named himself after: Riptide. It was his opponent's first and last mistake. With that sword he was unstoppable.

Percy moved like a flash when she went for her next attack, a power boosted uppercut. He dodged it, dragging his sword across her stomach. She let out a booming laugh and swiped for his head.

"I've got armor on, you moron!"

Percy rolled out of the way, coming back up to grin widely at her, "Then what's that red stuff?"

Her eyes went wide looking down at herself. The agony must have had a delayed reaction because her face suddenly contorted. Riptide had slashed right through her chest piece, the metal drawing blood which spewed onto the white floor in a pool.

Her eyes burned with a fire and she stumbled at him with another fighting punch. Percy flicked his sword and it was over before she stumbled past him. Percy stood to the side, letting her fall to her knees. He sheathed his sword in the scabbard to his side. xxRedClarissexx's health hit zero.

Blood splattered on the ground.

Percy uncomfortably fixed his cloak, making sure the hood was still pulled over his head and his mask was still in place. By the time he turned back around the girls moans as well as her body were gone. The crowd was silent.

"Well?" Percy asked, "I won right?"

The rest of the entire world seemed to move in a sudden haste to scream at him. People threw themselves at the glass walls surrounding him. The commentary box was fighting for the mics.

How dare he, the newbie, take down the best Prime player of the guild! How dare this kid who no one has ever heard of be classified for the Age Of Heroes Tournament! Percy glanced to his left where his own health bar and stats were floating in a ghostly pale, easily see through text.

**Riptide: Male, Swordsman.**

**Health: 76%**

The lights flickered rapidly as if they were having a seizure just like all the guild members around him. A man slammed his fist into the glass, but Percy ignored him. He scanned the crowd for the person he knew would not miss this fight for her life.

He found her just as she was leaving.

-Chasing- was well known in these competitions. She was notorious. She went into fights with just one dagger and she slaughtered armies. Her cloak was grey, grey like ashes from the fires that burned in her soul. Her outfit was simple, something that any player could buy from the universal shop: a gray tank top, work out pants, combat boots for every terrain. Her hair was in a loose brown pony tail, and it was the only thing that swished as she left without one look back at him.

"And it seems that the player Riptide will be going to the Age Of Heroes tournament tomorrow!" the mics finally got to a sensible person, "Currently he is the seventh of the twelve teams that will be chosen to join the games! Behind solo players: -Chasing-, xClassicx, BlackMagic, Hannibal, and Scipio, and the team, *STARS*. They will be competing tomorrow at noon for the worldwide annual Olympus sponsored competition for the grand sum total of fifty million dollars! In the next hour the last of the qualified competitors will be posted on the AOH news board! Please refer there for battle times and rules and any questions about sponsoring competitors!"

The screen button to teleport to the locker room appeared in front of Percy and he didn't think he could hit it fast enough. He was afraid if he let himself think too much about it he would realize he was dreaming. This...this was too good to be true. A miracle.

His avatar, appeared in the locker room, where only two other players were sitting. The next competitors: a team that called themselves >Stolls<. Percy had met them before the match, when the girl informed him he was going to die.

The locker rooms were shared by team so Percy wasn't surprised to see a sister and brother team in there when he came in. They both had neon green hair and wore matching outfits that would have driven any real world siblings crazy.

"Dude!" Imthebest, the boy said.

"How'd you do that?!" Imbetter, the girl asked.

Percy shook them both off, "Magic." He said,waving his hand above his stats to access his settings panel. The buttons flashed, Logout, Help, and the lovely Items storage space.

"But this is a magic free zone!" Imthebest argued.

"Dude, Riptide, join our guild, please?" Imbetter begged, "We could make an unbeatable team and own this tournament!"

"I'm a Solo Player, man." Percy shrugged, "Besides, I already own this tournament!" He hit the Logout button wishing it was as true as he made it sound.

For a second the world around him froze and faded to black. There was a prickling of his skin, like someone brushing against his arms and legs and his brain. Then Percy woke up like he did any other day.

For a second Percy didn't move he just lay there, feeling the weight of the headset on his head and the cheap cotton blanket under his body. Then he slowly moved his hands and removed the visor that had the power to transport him to another world. The bright light took a second to get use to.

The whistling however was something he was use to.

"Damn!" Percy's best friend said scrolling on his computer from the desk chair in the corner, "How do you do it, Perce?" Grover swiveled around to look at him grinning ear to ear. No doubt he'd already read the thousands of updated on the match from the blogs.

Grover was a short teenager that had befriended Percy so fast it was unnatural. Percy had always avoided other people but for some reason Grover, with his crippled legs and dry humor had a charming effect on Percy's antisocial-ness. He lived alone in a small apartment that was paid for by a distant aunt that Percy had never seen. Grover didn't seem bothered by the lack of his own family members though.

"I don't know, luck?" Percy answer truthfully.

Grover readjusted his Rasta cap looking doubtful, "Better hope that luck keeps coming then. You took out xxRedClarissexx in four minutes? Where did you get that sword? Man!"

Percy grinned and place the headset on the bed. He swung himself into a sitting position, feeling a little stiff but other than that as fine as he was before he went in. That was Percy's favorite thing about the Olympus Gaming system. All the damage was virtual. As long as you remembered that it was just a game, you couldn't really be hurt. Of course there was that official warning on the box that warned for insanity being a side effect, but no one took that seriously.

Games weren't made to be taken seriously.

Unless they involved fifty million dollars.

"Thanks, Grover." Percy said, "I owe you for this."

Grover dismissed him, "Dude you've got to be one of the best swordsmen to hit this game ever. You've got this competition in the bag!"

Percy wanted to believe him, but suddenly he couldn't swallow. Everything he had was riding on this dumb competition. Fifty Million....that could change everything. All he had to do was log in tomorrow and destroy the world.

"Was -Chasing- there?" Grover asked, "She's probably checking out the competition to build a strategy. But, man, she's got nothing on you." He scrolled the blog again reading the text at an impressive speed.

"Anything interesting?" Percy asked rubbing his side to wear down the pain that had come out of nowhere.

Grover shrugged, "Just these threats from the Titan Hackers. They say something about having the code for the Age Of Heroes Competition and that they are going to take over and blah blah blah. Just dumb stuff like that. There's no way they could break the Olympus coding."

"That guy did a couple months ago, remember?" Percy said snapping his fingers but no name came to mind. Even though the story blew up the media world wide.

Grover snorted, "He hacked Sanction Island. AOH is a lot more intense than a dumb zombie game. There's got to be firewalls on firewalls for this one." Even so he didn't sound that confident as his eyes kept sliding down the page.

Percy sighed and looked at the clock, "I've got to go. Thanks again for letting me borrow your set."

"Win Fifty Million and then you can really thank me, Jackson." Grover turned back to his computer. Percy grabbed his book bag from the bedside. He nearly tripped over Grover's crutches on the way out of the small bedroom.

"Hey, Perce," Grover called suddenly, "Are you ever going to join a guild?"

Percy stopped just at the front door making a face, "Why would I ever do that? I'm a Solo Player, man."

Grover seemed to be expecting that answer, because he just rolled his eyes. "Tell your mother I said hello."

Percy gave him one last wave before he left the tiny apartment. He broke into a wild sprint towards the end of the hallway to the staircase that would lead him up to the floor where Rachel was watching Tyson for the day.

He'd barely hit the wood twice before she flung it open. Rachel Dare was the only other person Percy talked to. She was his age, with brilliant red hair, and paint splattered clothes that she probably made herself. She was crafty like that.

"Dude, you're late." She said, staring at him with her accusing green eyes.

"I know! I'm sorry!" Percy panted leaning against her doorway. His side burned and he had to work to make sure he wasn't crying in front of the pretty girl. Not now! Not now! Rachel pursed her lips.

"Did you get in?"

Percy allowed himself a small exhale. He nodded. Rachel didn't lighten up much, "Good, because I can't keep watching your brother for free. I love Tyson, Percy, but he eats like a black hole!"

Percy gave a breathy laugh.

"Percy!" A small voice yelled. He looked down as a small figure burst from behind the babysitter. He leapt on top of Percy and wrapped him in a hug big enough to crush skyscrapers.

Tyson was four. With brown hair and a big toothy smile that could brighten anyone's day it was always hard to feel horrible around the tiny kid. He had two eyes, but a condition during childbirth had left his left eye a milky white and blind. But it had never slowed Tyson down. He was always been just as athletic as the other kids. In fact the only thing that Percy was sure the kid wasn't that good at was reading.

Fifty Million.

"Hey, Squirt!" Percy ruffled his hair, "Time to go home 'kay? Thank Miss Rachel, will you?"

Tyson turned back to the girl and waved excitedly to her, "Thank you Miss!"

"Bye, Tyson! I'll see you soon!"

Percy grabbed Tyson by his sides causing him to squeal. Straining, the older brother picked up the younger boy and carried him down he hall with just a wink back at Rachel. She rolled her eyes and closed the door.

"So Rules, Buddy. What are the rules?" Percy asked the younger as they were approaching the end of the hall where their own apartment rest.

"Stay Quiet. Don't wake Gabe." Tyson recited, "Go to my room and get the coloring books and sit and color until Mommy says it's time for dinner."

"And?" Percy slipped a hand into his pocket to get his key, "No matter what you hear what do you do?"

Tyson wouldn't meet his eyes, even though they had repeated this conversation every day for the past two years. He voice was quiet, "Stay in my room."

Percy put him down on the floor, wincing at the pain in his side, "Good." Percy unlocked the door and Tyson scooted in without looking back. The kid was silent as a ghost and gone before Percy had pulled his key back from the door.

He peeked around the mini living room. It was a mess, even though Percy had just cleaned it yesterday. Gabe was passed out on the sofa, half a dozen beers strewn around him and a half empty one still his hand. Percy could smell the stench of smoke and pot lingering in the air still. Ever since Gabe had moved in, that smell had become normal. Percy despised it.

Fifty Million.

His mother was on clearing a bowl and a couple mugs off the coffee table. She smiled at him when he walked in, but it didn't reach her brown eyes. Percy missed when her smile did that. Percy grabbed a plate from the floor and a beer bottle and carried them after his mother into the kitchen.

"How was it?" Sally Jackson asked in hushed tone as she stacked the plates expertly.

"Wonderful," Percy lied, "Someone switched the signs for the clearance items so all the customers were mad at me."

His mother's shoulders fell and she pulled him into a hug. Percy wished he didn't feel this horrible about lying to her. She was under the assumption that he had gotten a job and left to work every time that he went out. He couldn't bare to tell her the truth, that he was actually at a friend's house trying against impossible odds to win enough money to save his family from the monster that was their step father.

The phantom pain in his side burned again.

Fifty Million.

There was a new red mark on her cheek, Percy noticed darkly. She was walking with a slight limp.

They had been falling behind in their bills. His mother thought maybe the nice man in the dark suit and flashy looking tie was actually a nice person. Turns out appearances in the real world can be as fake as in virtual reality.

If he asked, she'd say she tripped down the stairs. She bumped into a table. Hit her head on the table when she was cleaning. Anything but the truth.

But Percy knew it was all a lie. His mother was the most graceful, precise person on the planet. Gabe had hit her.

Percy knew because he did it to him too.

And Tyson.

And poor Tyson. Just thinking of it made Percy's side burn. He resisted the urge to put pressure on the cut.

"Did Gabe lose again?" Percy whispered instead.

His mother hesitated, "Come on help me with dinner. How's Tyson?"

"Mom, can I get the truth?"

His mother froze pulling the milk from the fridge. "Can you get me the pancake mix? I'm thinking breakfast for dinner."

Percy sighed. All he could think about was tomorrow. He couldn't lose. Not with everything at stake here.

Tyson, his mom, Rachel, Gabe....Fifty Million over his head.

Percy wished he enjoyed the pancakes more. Or that he hugged his mom a little tighter. Or told Tyson he loved him. Or gave Rachel a final thanks and Grover one last fist bump....He wished he'd realized just exactly what he'd be getting into with the AOH Tournament.

Tomorrow he'd prove to be the greatest Solo Player Ever or die trying.

He had no idea how true that would be.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nervous butterflies are about to be the least of Percy's problems.

The morning everything went wrong, started out normal, which seemed unfair to Percy. He figured that if everything was going to change then he better get a warning, maybe like tripping down the stairs or pouring his cereal down his shirt. But neither of those things happened. In fact, looking back, that morning was the best he'd had in a while.

His mother was home that morning, making breakfast of oatmeal that sent spirals of cinnamon spices to wake Percy up from his and Tyson's room down the hall. Tyson was laughing when he walked to the tiny kitchen.

Gabe was leaving for work (he worked at a mega mart in the electronics department). "Beat it, punk." He grumbled to his step son and shouldered his way out the door in his blue and yellow uniform that was a couple sizes too small for his overweight body. He shoved Percy into the doorway but that was it. Percy let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding in.

"Percy! Good morning!" His mother said, offering him a spoon of oatmeal. Even though it smelled like heaven, Percy didn't think he could stomach any food, "Tyson and I made breakfast for you!"

"It's really yummy, Percy!" Tyson said standing in his chair.

"I'm sure it is!" Percy ruffled his hair, "Save me sum okay? I've got work this morning but the second I get back I'll eat all of it."

The kitchen clock read eleven which surprised Percy a bit. He hadn't realized he slept in. He was glad he didn't really have a job, because he'd totally always be late. Though he was shocked he'd slept at all. His side was burning still. Last night he'd found that the cut he'd gotten from the beer bottles had turned a not-so-nice red color. And still he didn't dare tell his mother.

He glanced at Tyson again, remembering just the last week when he leapt in front of the younger boy and taken that bottle for him. Gabe had gotten a bad hand and Tyson had slipped from the room without Percy's knowledge. Gabe had thrown the bottle at the four year old kid. Percy hadn't even thought twice. He'd give anything for his brother.

In a couple hours he'd either be fifty million dollars richer or he'd be lost in a never ending void of misery that was his life.

"Gotta go, Mom," Percy said and kissed his mother on the cheek as she smiled fondly. She looked at him with such pride Percy felt guilty for letting her believe he was working. At this point getting a job would probably be more beneficial, but every place he went to seemed to hate hiring teenaged guys. The only place that still was hiring was the mega mart and Percy would rather fight in AOH than work there.

"Be safe, Percy!" His mom said scooping oatmeal into a tupperware container and placing it in the refrigerator for him to eat later.

Percy wished above all else that he'd gotten to eat that oatmeal.

He looked back just once before he left, seeing his grinning four year old brother, and his for once smiling mother sitting in the kitchen like a real happy family. He never even got to say goodbye.

Grover was at the door, hobbling with his crutches. He looked more worried than anything else. There were bags under his eyes and he was wearing the same outfit from yesterday slept in and everything.

"There's something weird going on." Grover informed him, "Really Weird."

Percy raised an eyebrow, "It's Virtual Reality, everything's weird."

"Weirder than normal." Grover was quiet for a moment, and he set himself in his swivel chair. His computer was on, displaying tabs of blogs that he perused for fun. Percy wasn't nearly as good at navigating the Olympus Gamer's blogs like he was.

"I was reading on the threat base that I saw yesterday." He said, "The Titan Hackers? They're serious. I'm getting kind of nervous about this, Percy. They claimed the success of that Hack on Olympus back before it was a big deal. Remember that game that drove like four people insane? The titans claim they did that. I don't think you should go in. Really, Perce."

Percy shrugged off his jacket and stretched, "Relax, Grover. You said yourself: AOH is going to be seriously defended. Firewalls upon firewalls. The only thing we need to be worried about is how I'm going to beat little Miss -Chasing- and win the money that will get rid of Gabe."

"You know you can always just report him, right?" Grover said, "I mean, there's a reason they have an abuse hotline."

Percy picked the visor off the bed that Grover hadn't used last night, "It's not just that, G-man, Mom won't tell me directly, but Gabe keeps betting off the money for our bills and we still need to pay Rachel for watching Tyson...I need the money."

He nodded reluctantly, and turned back to his blogs, typing something in. "Right. Also regarding the brunette terror -Chasing-, I searched her last night. She runs a blog, Grey Owls. She's got a really bad obsession with grey, man. I've scanned a couple posts, she does daily updates on her battles, adventures, she was already planning on entering this back in July. Also she does killer examinations on pro fighters, weakness and strengths.

"She's got this one on xxRedClarissexx that points out things I didn't even know was possible in this game. I don't think they've even ever fought before. Call me crazy but I'm sure she knew you were going to win that fight before you'd even stepped on that field."

Percy frowned, "Does she have one on me?"

Grover shook his head, "No, but then again she doesn't have one on any one else who's in the tournament. I think she's just saving them. I hate to say this but I stayed up all night and still couldn't find a weakness on her."

Percy gave him a lopsided smile, "Well, then I'll just improvise until I can lay a strike on her."

"Luck, huh?" Grover rolled his eyes, "Mind if I post all about your lucky improv skills on my blog?"

Percy wasn't sure if he was joking or not. To be honest Percy had only a vague idea of his friend's blog at all. He mostly just reposted articles about earth awareness and anti animal abuse things. Percy wasn't even sure what the title was, Frying Pan or something like that.

"Alright I'm going in," Percy said, "Wish me luck."

"Don't die." Grover said instead, "I'll see you in a couple hours, partner."

Percy flashed him one more smile and he closed the visor and turned it on. The world remained black and slowly flickered on. White text appeared blinking and waiting for him to enter his username and password.

"Riptide," He said, The letters appearing just how he pictured it was spelled, "SoloPlayer."

The world flashed white, blue text scrolling across the screen, " **Player Riptide is entered in the Age Of Heroes Olympus Game System sponsored Tournament. Respond Yes to verify that this is you."**

"Yes."

" **Player Riptide will now be entered into the forum where the other contenders are preparing. Please wait patiently."**

Just like that Percy left the real world behind. The waiting part only took a couple minutes, which was more than enough time for Percy to suddenly feel violently sick about this game. So many butterflies erupted in his blood stream he nearly woke himself back up. He couldn't help but smile to himself, as his avatar faded into a new world.

The area was a clearing, in the middle of the woods. He was standing on a small pedestal, that had his username engraved on the ground. His icon, a trident picture he found and really liked was printed under his name. There were twelve people already in the clearing already off their pedestals and hanging out in the middle of the ring.

"Well, look who decided to show up!" A girl with neon orange hair called. She was smiling deviously with her arm on a guy who looked like he could crush dump trucks with just his bare hands. The girl's name was floating over her head in white text, Hawtstufz9, which did nothing to stop the bat that came from the guy's huge hand. Ironically his name read, Charm4u, which Percy thought might be a bit of an inside joke. They both had the same glowing red icon next to their names signifying they were one of the three teams that had entered: Cliches.

The irony was overwhelming.

Everyone turned to look at Percy when Hawtstufz9 spoke, making him feel a swell of self consciousness. -Chasing- was there in the corner, and the >Stolls< team was looking dangerous in green that matched their team icon. The others Percy had never had the pleasure of meeting. He wasn't sure if that would be a good thing or not.

Scipio was a girl with black hair and a thief's mask over her eyes that was a reward for completing a mission on one of the nearby storyboard worlds. Hannibal was a guy with a tall build and the looks of a elf with the cloak that read his name. xClassicx was a girl with skin so pale Percy would have no trouble calling her snow white, her gold eyes looked him over, and a small smile played on her lips. A guy with the title BlackMagic was throwing rocks at the world around them but they kept bouncing off the indivisible barrier and falling dangerously close to a girl, El3ctric, with wicked blue hair who was cleaning a pair of hunting knives. Iam_superman was dressed in a dark purple cloak, and kept glancing at El3ctric like she was bothering him.

They were only missing two entries (Three pedestals, a solo player and a team) before they could begin.

"Sup?" Percy asked, making sure his mask was still in place. He didn't care about his cloak and hood this time. It wasn't like anyone was going to recognize his blue hair, because he didn't actually have blue hair.

"You're late." -Chasing- informed him with her stern voice that sounded way too much like a teacher who was seconds away from giving Percy detention.

"yo, -Chasing-, relax." BlackMagic said, tossing another rock, "Noon is a bit iffy around the world. Plus what does it matter if a couple are late? I'm gonna kick all your asses anyway!" His rock bounced off and hit El3ctric who moved so fast she was like lightning.

"Will you quit that!" she hissed at him. He snickered and she raised an arm to throw her hunting knife. Immediately alarms started going off and the room flashed red.

" **Please refrain from fighting before the game has started,** " an automatic voice said. El3ctric spat something about stupid rules and lowered her knife. Iam_superman sighed.

"Why so glum, Clark Kent?" Hawtstufz9 slid up next to him placing an arm around him. Her orange hair swished in her long ponytail sparking with the fire special effect.

"Get off," He said. The girl ignored him until Charm4u picked her up by the neck.

"Watch, yourself, Flames." He warned his partner, "You aren't nearly as cute as your username advertises."

"Well you aren't exactly Miss Universe yourself, Charm." Imthebest said, "I mean, who would choose you over this?" He motioned to his own body with his sister moving around and pretending to take pictures with an invisible camera. Then Imbetter frowned and looked at her hands in disgust.

"Aw bro, your ugly face just broke my camera...." She squealed as Imthebest swiped at her.

Scipio rolled her eyes, leaning against the barrier. Hannibal and xClassicx were in a discussion about some TV show that Percy couldn't catch the name of.

A bright light flashed and all at once the remaining pedestals lit up with the last three avatars. A team of two and another solo player. The solo Player was a guy, ~GhostKing~ wearing a black armored tank top. He was glaring at the team with hatred that surprised Percy.

The team was two girls wearing silver both with bows around their back. Their team name was clear: *STARS* composed of Stargirl365 and -AngelQueen-. They had barely finished glowing before ~GhostKing~ stalked over and grabbed -AngelQueen- by the arm.

"What am I not good enough for you?" He asked, "You had to go team up with someone else?"

"That's not what it is!" She argued back, "I just wanted to fight with someone who's not you. We always fight together! I just want to try something new!"

"You joined the Hunter's Guild!"

"So? I can't play with my own friends once in a while?" She shot him a nasty look, "Stop being selfish!"

Obviously that was the wrong thing to say, because even in the virtual world his cheeks redden and his black eyes grew darker. But before he could yell any of the insults that were no doubt running around in his mind, the lights flashed on and off.

"Competitors to your starting places!"

The pedestals flashed like beacons calling Percy back there. Percy stepped back up there stretching his arms to the sky and shaking himself loose. It was a relief to know his side wasn't in crippling pain in this game. Oh the wonders of Virtual Realities.

Around him his foes were getting ready. But with a swell of pride Percy knew that half of them would not stand a chance against his sword that could cut metal. They'd have to be really powerful to beat him in a fast paced fight. -Chasing- was glaring at him for her Pedestal across the arena. He got the distinct feeling she was still trying to analyse him and pick him apart from his weaknesses to his strengths to what he was trying to win this for.

Fifty Million for Tyson.

Percy grinned behind his mask.

A screen appeared in the middle of all of them, displaying the iconic avatars of the Olympic Council that had originally created the game. All the founders had taken on names of the Greek Gods as a joke for the production of the Olympus Gaming system. Percy's personal favorite was the guys named Poseidon who worked with the water coding. He did a lot of adventure gaming too.

"Heroes!" The head of production, Zeus, called them to attention, "Welcome to the Age of Heroes tournament! Here you will compete for the Gods favor and to go down in history as the greatest hero alive!"

Hera stepped up next, "Your avatars have been all supplied with the same survival materials. However the weapons will be whatever you as a player have kept in your Item Storage."

"All weapons and all magic are allowed throughout this battle." Ares said gruffly, "But we warn against going overboard in your fights. A reminder that any excess attack methods can result in insanity. Causing any other player lasting mental damage will forfeit any chances at accepting the grand prize."

The woman who was posing as Aphrodite giggled, "but make sure to have fun, Sweeties!"

Ares smiled at her, which made Hephaestus huff just like the real Olympic gods. The mechanical forger said, "Also these little beauties will be following you all around." Little floating balls appeared from the trees rotating to get good views of all of them with their clear black lenses. "These are Cameras I have coded myself. They will be live broadcasting every fight that takes place. So wave for all your fans, players!"

The >Stolls< squealed and waved like maniacs. Percy nodded to the cameras.

Demeter sighed, "Food will be all around the map, it will be able to cure bits of health after fights but not large amounts at a time. Food Stations will replenish every couple of hours, though I doubt it will take this tournament that long."

Apollo grinned like he was about to get to the best part of the introduction, but the second he opened his mouth the entire arena plunged into red light. Percy looked around confused. It was the same light that had warned El3ctric against killing BlackMagic before the battle started. But they were all looking as confused as he was, even the gods on the screen.

Then the game started to glitch, which was terrifying. The trees disappeared and reappeared. The sky was blotted out with purple blocks. Alarms blared to loud Percy could barely think. xClassicx screamed and jumped off her pedestal to avoid getting crushed by a black block the size of a car that crashed down in the space she'd been.

"Move!" Iam_Superman tackled Charm4u out of the way as a tree tumbled on their stands. The red lights flashed and sound exploded from everywhere, the screen with the gods buzzed and broke like it had a bad connection. The Game creators had looks of panics and ran all over the place. Then the screen disappeared completely

Percy scrambled from his base as a rumbling overcame the ground. Giant cracks appeared in the ground in front of him like a giant earthquake. Percy leapt towards the edge just as his and BlackMagic's starting space plunged downwards. He roughly pulled himself up, surprised to find a camera right in his face. They seemed to be the only things still working.

"What the Hell is going on?!" Scipio yelled.

"We're starting, losers!" BlackMagic yelled wiping out a dagger with a green tip. But before he could swipe at Hannibal, he shrieked and fell to his knees grabbing his head.

The pain hit Percy as well just a second later. It was like someone was microwaving his brain. Agony pierced through his mind shredding every thought he had. His scream was louder than the explosions of sound that had overtook the game itself. All of the players were yelling in agony. Through his haze he saw -Chasing- stumbling back, a giant rock appeared out of no where right over her.

He couldn't believe himself, but he launched his body towards her. The rock crashed right next to them leaving coded dust that wrapped around Percy so thick he could feel it burning his lungs.

It's not real. He told himself, It's just a game.

But it still burned. Why was it still hurting?

He coughed.

The pain in his head subsided slightly. He looked down to where he was still on top of -Chasing-. At least he thought he had been. He didn't recognize the girl he'd shoved out of the way. She wasn't the brunet he'd been so afraid off. She had curls so blond they looked like honey. Her eyes were grey and wide with both surprise and suddenly fear.

"Riptide?" She coughed looking at him the same way he was looking at her.

Immediately his hand went to his face. His mask! It was gone, but he didn't remember it falling off or him taking it off. A sick feeling swelled in his stomach but he forced it down. So what if he looked the way he did in real life? The lights flickered back to normal. The dust was starting to settle.

They all had migrated to the north side of the clearing. Giant rocks had glitched into the center of them and half the pedestals were missing. Percy looked around but no one looked the same as they had before.

Iam_superman was hacking dust out of his lungs his blond hair flowing in front of his eyes. Charm4u wasn't even a guy anymore. Under the username a girl with choppy brown hair and strange eyes that looked more gamelike than real life like was leaning over Hawtstufz9, who was also genderswapped to a short guy. He was unconscious in with a cut over his eyebrow. Scipio had lost her mask but her regal glare was all the same. Hannibal was looking around like the glitch was going to happen again. He was tall with chinese features, that didn't quite fit his babyish face. xClassicx crawled from behind a boulder, but without floating stats Percy wouldn't have recognized her. She was smaller, with cinnamon hair and dark skin, nothing like her other appearance.

"Connor?" The voice called, from behind a tree. Imthebest coughed, running a hand through his sandy blond hair.

"Travis?" the male voice responded. An identical boy crawled out and found him. Imbetter was a guy?? "What the Hell just happened?"

"Something bad." ~GhostKing~ used a rock to haul himself back to his feet. Other than a longer hair cut, he looked mostly the same as before, "Where's my sister?"

"Help!" A voice scream making the younger boy's already pale face drain of color.

"Over here!" Another voice yelled, El3ctric with regular black hair, was kneeling with Stargirl365 who actually wore her brown hair in a braid, next to a fallen tree that had trapped an -AngelQueen-. She looked so similar to ~GhostKing~ Percy could see the family resemblance.

"I can't get out!" She said tearfully, "Help, please!"

Iam_superman rushed forward along with ~GhostKing~, but the blond reached first he sent a glare at El3ctric, "Aren't you suppose to be at work?"

"Aren't you suppose to be in school?" She retorted quickly.

They both grunted but Iam_superman turned back to the younger girl. "Hold still." He said backing up, "I hope this works." He held up his arms, the bands on his wrists starting to glow blue. Wind flew around the clearing lifting the tree up slightly. The girl scrambled out crying. The blond boy inhaled sharply and the tree crashed back down. -AngelQueen- was missing a fourth of her health.

"Get off!" -Chasing- shoved Percy off her. He'd totally forgotten he was on top of her.

BlackMagic stood up slowly, pawning his knife like he was expecting one of them to attack him. Hawtstufz9 groaned and let his friend get him to his feet.

"Pipes, your face-" He said.

"Shut up, are you okay?" She asked.

"I'm...yeah, I'm fine." He winced, as he lied. Even Percy could tell he was lying and he'd never seen the kid before. Hawtstufz9 reached to swipe his stats and get the menu. Then he frowned, "Where's my logout button?"

"You're quitting?!"

"No! I was looking for info on what is going on Beauty Queen! But where the fuck did my logout button go?!"

Everyone looked at his screen which was clearly missing a the familiar logout button.

"Oh shit." Percy swiped at his menu, too, finding his logout to be MIA.

El3ctric let out a breathy laugh, but it sounded like she was close to panicking, "This is getting weird. A bug?"

"I thought the AOH game was suppose to be bug free." Stargirl365 sniffled distasteful, "How unprofessional."

Percy felt sick to his stomach suddenly. Grover's words came back to him in a sudden burst of horrid realization, "The Titan Hackers? They're serious."

"Firewalls upon Firewalls, huh?" Percy let out a laugh that wasn't suppose to come out. Horror wound its way right to Percy's core. Everyone was looking at his shaking form but he barely noticed. He looked at one of the cameras that were floating nearby, "You called it, G-man. I should've listened."

The ball didn't respond but Percy could picture his best friend slamming his fist on the keyboard and cursing him furiously.

"What are you talking about?" BlackMagic demanded, closing out his menu, "Who's G-man? What about Firewalls?"

The entire world flashed red again. xClassicx screamed grabbing onto the nearest person, Hannibal. The tall guy didn't seem to have a problem with her digging her nails into arm. Another screen appeared in front of all of them but in it was not the game creators. It was a series of people all wearing those theater masks, with the Happy Smiles or the Upset Frowns.

"Hello silly gamers." The Man in the middle said in a cold voice that made Percy take a step back.

"No way." Hawtstufz9 cup a hand over his mouth like he was going to be sick, "Not these guys!"

"This is a message from the Titans." The leader continued like the boy hadn't made a noise, "You are now in our game. We have hacked right through the poor coding of Olympus and taken complete control of the Age Of Heroes Tournament."

"With our take over, there have been some...rule chances. But don't worry we're still broadcasting live!" Another voice said, colder, harsher, with his eyes bearing hungry gleam that Percy definitely didn't like. "First of all, as you can see, no more phony avatars. You play as yourself. Your weapons are what you have right now. You're items have been restarted."

"Hey!" Imthebest yelled, "I had a laser canon in my items! If you sons of Bitches dare touch it-!" Imbetter covered his brother's mouth and dragged him back.

"As you've no doubt noticed, there is no logout button. You cannot quit this game anymore. Instead we've place one of our own avatars in the game, run by one of our own. If you can kill him you all get to leave. But be warned: he is the best of the best. And he can only leave if he kills five of you. If he succeeds, the rest of you will be trapped until we decide to let you leave."

Something in his voice suggested that there was a low chance of them ever being able to logging out if they win.

"S-so that's it?" BlackMagic stuttered, "Five of our avatars are killed and he gets to go, or we kill your guy and we get to go?"

Another of the guys on the screen stepped up his purple mask gleaming in the red light. He didn't say anything, but just looked through the crowd. -AngelQueen- made a noise that sounded like a sob. She was looking at her Health bar.

"Why is it still going down?" She whispered, "I'm not poisoned."

Percy wanted to throw up. He chest heaved. -Chasing- cupped her hand over her lips trying to contain the gasp. ~GhostKing~ let out a scream.

"H-how-?" Stargirl365 whispered.

"You dirty little-" Hawtstufz9 screamed, "You hacked the headgear! You directly linked our bodies to the damage factor!"

Percy stumbled over, crying out. His hands were shaking, pain washed over him driving from his side in waves.

"Riptide!" -Chasing- yelled.

"No way." Percy stared at the ground in disbelief. His breath came out in pants, that he couldn't quite slow. He glanced up at his health bar watching the green color slipping down a little. He cursed so badly his mother would've washed his mouth with bleach.

If he ever saw her again.

If he ever saw any of them again.

The lights flickered back to normal. The screen casing the Titan Hackers closed and the fourteen of them in the clearing shared a look.

"I don't understand." El3ctric said roughly, "What was all that about linking our bodies?!"

-Chasing- looked at her and said the words that everyone was thinking but couldn't bring themselves to say it. "He means...." She swallowed hard, "if we die in the game..."

"It happens in real life too." Hannibal finished.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy does his best not to die

Percy forced himself to stand. His body ached, but the pain was subsiding back to that throb that had accompanied for the past week. -Chasing- was right by his side, her grey eyes looking more worried for him than her own self. He forced a lopsided smile on his face, the same one he'd perfected for everyone else.

"I'm fine," he lied, "just wasn't expecting it."

The (now) brother team >Stolls< appeared on either side of him, the matching outfits making it impossible to tell them from each other.

"That looks pretty nasty!" Imbetter commented.

"How'd you get that?" Imthebest asked.

"Magic," Percy gave them a look that clearly told them to drop it. The boys shared a look, but they complied. -Chasing- however just seemed to be more interested. She made that face that people made when they were given a puzzle to figure out. Before she could ask any of her questions though, a large amount of shouting broke out behind them.

"You're Delusional!" Iam_superman spit.

"Gullible!" El3ctric snapped right back.

"How the Hell could you even think that!"

"Because I'm not an idiot like you, Daddy's Boy!"

"You've been drinking again, Thalia!" The boy spit at her. Her face got dark and she shot up right into his face. She was only an inch taller but that didn't stop either of them. Her knife flew into her hands. His sword glistened in the fake sunlight. "You think this is a joke! After all of this?"

She turned on him snarling like a wolf, "Yeah, I do! Got a problem? This is Olympus. They are the most secure virtual realities supplier. This is one big dumb joke and sometime soon all those idiots are going to pop up and throw a party like they're super funny!" Thalia's eyes lit up like her username, "Show me a bit of proof! How do you know that these Titan guys are for real? They wore masks, Jason! It was probably Zeus and Hermes and Apollo with voice overs!"

He was going to reply but Hawtstufz9 beat him with just a simple whisper, "They're real."

"What?" Hannibal asked.

The scrawny boy hugged himself and seemed to look at everyone and no one at the same time. "They are real. The Titans? They're a group of hackers. You can't possibly call yourself a hacker and not know about them. They tried to take over Olympus years ago and drove four people completely insane with a virus leak into the coding."

"You're a hacker?" Scipio asked sharply.

He hesitated glancing at the floating orbs around them uncomfortably.

"It does not matter what he is." Stargirl365 spoke up. Her voice was thick like English wasn't her first language. She helped -AngelQueen- to her feet. "We are all in this together, no? So for now we will avoid causing...pain.. to one another. I do not think this is... how you Americans say, a bluff."

"No one cares what you think, Stars." Thalia the El3ctric girl made a face at her.

"Hey will you cut that out!" Charm4u interjected, "We don't know what's going on and you picking fights is not helping!"

"What are you going to do about it?" BlackMagic got in her face. For the first time Percy noticed that the boy actually wore an eye patch under his black bangs. "Little Miss Princess, why are you here?"

Her cheeks flamed up and she stiffened. With the look she was giving him, Percy doubted that unsheathing her dagger and gutting him did not cross her mind. BlackMagic must have noticed it as well because he spread his arms out in a blatant dare.

He sneered, "Yeah, I know who the fuck you are: Piper Fucking McLean, daughter of Fucking Tristan Fucking McLean, AKA the richest fucking girl on the fucking planet."

"I'm honestly surprised he fitting fuck into a sentence that many times." Imbetter whispered to his brother. xClassicx looked like she might faint and was furiously fanning her face.

"Why the Fucking Hell did you need to enter this tournament for, Princess?" BlackMagic ignored them, "Isn't fifty million your daily allowance?"

Percy hadn't noticed before but now that BlackMagic pointed out his recognized the famous movie star's daughter. Despite the male getup that had been on her avatar and the dirt on her face, she still looked like the girl from the news headlines. Piper McLean.

Hawtstufz9 stepped between them, smartly. "Back off, Pirate boy. She's part of my team. You got a problem with my home girl then you go through me." His fist caught fire with heat so hot Percy felt it from wear he was standing. BlackMagic jumped back to avoid getting burned.

-Chasing- spoke up, "Guys lets just all calm-"

"SHUT UP!" They yelled at her

Piper turned on the Hawtstufz9, looking even more angry at him than she was at BlackMagic. "Don't fight my battles for me!"

"He was just trying to help!" xClassicx grabbed her arm, "You could at least say thanks!"

"I don't need any help!" Piper yanked her arm out of the other girl's grasp, so violently xClassicx tumbled to the ground.

"Hey!" Hannibal shouted, "Be careful!"

"This is a joke!" Thalia screamed.

"You're a joke!" Jason yelled right back.

"I ordered pizza..." Imbetter moaned, "I'm never going to get to eat it am I?"

"You're a hacker!" Scipio shouted

"What's it to you!" Hawtstufz9 snapped.

-AngelQueen- pushed ~GhostKing~ away from her, "I'm fine! Stop hovering!"

"You're not fine!" He argued.

"I'll show you just how perfectly fine I am if you keep treating me like I'm a fragile egg!"

Percy sighed. He turned around and grabbed the top of the nearest rock. He blinked back tears that pricked the back of his eyes and yanked himself up on top of the monstrous Boulder. A black floating camera hovered by his ear but Percy just brushed it away. The last thing he needed was a close up of his ratty hair and sea green eyes for all the world to make memes out of.

He cupped his hand over his mouth and shouted, "Excuse me? Can you all hear me?" All the other gamer's fell silent with confusion. He took a long breathe and exhaled, awkwardly. He hated talking in front of others, but as soon as he started the words wouldn't stop coming. "Yeah, well, you people are the reason I play completely solo. Honestly! It's been less than five minutes and this game has gone to Hell!

"I don't care if its a prank or not! All I know is my log out button is missing and those guys just claimed that they have an assassin whose mission is to kill us. All of you standing here shouting and screaming at each other is just going to alert that guy to where we all are. That is if he didn't already know where we are.

"I had a cut on my side, before I put the headgear on this morning. It's back. And I'm no longer even playing as my avatar! I didn't even think that, that was possible! So I'm going to treat all this insane shit like it's real." Percy glanced at the cameras, "Quite frankly, I'd rather be humiliated on live TV than dead."

The clearing was so silent Percy could hear his own breathing. He wondered if his mom knew already, about the game. It had only been half an hour since the start. He could imagine her and Tyson sitting at the kitchen table. Was today her day off? He'd totally forgotten. She was probably cleaning the counters while Tyson was practicing reading to her from one of his kiddie action adventure books. Percy didn't even want to think how she'd react if she found out he'd done this.

She'd kill him.

This what I get for lying to my mother, Percy thought, Listen to your parents kids. Sometimes they actually know stuff.

He wondered if she knew already and was watching him stand on a rock addressing this group of kids, while his health bar was slowly sinking. It must seem so unrealistic. Her little Percy, the antisocial kid who'd rather hang with his little brother or by himself than with others, was speaking to all these other kids, and only panicking a little bit.

Suddenly a ding rang out in the clearing. Percy looked confused to his stat bar. Where an orange blimp was hanging over his username. A friend request. He looked at -Chasing- surprised.

"What?" She closed out her menu again, "You make a good argument."

Percy opened the blimp, looking at the request, "Are you going to be pissed if I decline?"

"I'll have no regrets about killing you, if that's what you mean."

Percy hit the accept button.

"Yay, Friendship!" Hawtstufz9 called out and threw his arms up, making a face, "Next thing you know they're going to be making babies in some virtual cave-"

-Chasing- slammed her fist into his face. Her grey eyes sparked, and Percy what agitated him more: that she punched the scrawny kid so hard his nose was bleeding or that she looked flipping terrific doing it. Not that Percy was paying special attention or anything, but he thought that her hair looked ten times better blonde than it did with that dark chocolate color that her avatar had.

BlackMagic rolled his eye, "So now what?" He asked spitefully towards Percy, "You lead us, Riptide?" He drew out Percy's online name as if he was making fun of it.

Percy swallowed uneasily. The guy had a point. The last thing Percy wanted to do was become a leader. He had enough trouble talking to people normally, much less when they were looking to him for instructions. Percy played solo because he hated talking to people. With the standing ovation of his Why We Should Not Kill Each Other speech, the black haired, green eyed teenager was fighting the urge to empty his already empty stomach.

"Uh, um," Percy couldn't help but remember he was being watched by a lot more than just 28 eyes, "I, uh,-"

"LOOK OUT!" Thalia screamed, suddenly reaching for her knives.

Percy didn't have time to move. His brain froze at the sound of her words and by the time he was processing the phrase, the tip of a silver blade was already sticking out of his stomach.

"Riptide!" -Chasing- and xClassicx screamed. Percy couldn't hear them. He let out his own yelled that stopped abruptly. Percy choked, surprised that blood was suddenly coming out of his mouth. Blood was coming from everywhere.

The girl called Thalia let out a shriek. Who ever had stabbed him yanked the sword out.

Percy gasped. His legs crippled at his lost of balance. He fell off the boulder, landing heavily on the ground.

A world away, a mother let out a scream. She stumbled back hands over her mouth, desperately trying to deny what she was seeing. A world away, a four year old boy grabbed his brother's unmoving, clammy hand sobbing even though he wasn't sure what was going on. A world away, a red haired girl hugged herself and didn't bother to wipe the tears that were obscuring her vision as she watched the live broadcast on the TV. A world away....A best friend slammed a hand on his keyboard yelling for Riptide to get back up.

He didn't get back up.

"PERCY!" Grover shouted, even though he knew the other boy could hear him. Behind him, Tyson sobbed into the quilted blankets that his brother's body laid on top of. Percy's mother ran from the room to the bathroom down the hall and emptied her breakfast.

"I told you..." Grover shook, placing his head on his desk, "I told you not to, Perce."

A dark figure stood on the boulder, the same place Riptide had just been standing. He wore a simple outfit: a hunting garb of dark greens and a black cloak over his shoulders. His silver sword glistened liquid red. His blonde hair fluttered in the virtual wind. He wore a mask, a smiling gold mardi gra mask, just like the ones the Titans had been wearing.

"One down," The player called Kronos said. "Four to go."

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rip Percy. The author must really suck of the main character dies in the fourth chapter.....

_ “Riptide!” _

Percy couldn’t think. He couldn’t breath. He couldn’t move. It was as if he was there just to simply exist in agony. Around him the other game player’s screamed. The ground felt sticky, Percy’s fingers twitched in the red pool forming all around himself.

“One down,” The voice over him said, “Four to go.”

Was this it? Was this how he died? At seventeen, inside a game, with a virtual sword wound in his stomach and his own virtual blood coating in his clothes?

  **Health: 5%**

What a sucky way to go.

He could picture his own funeral, His mother dressed in black. She wouldn’t have worn make up, because she would have cried it all off before the ceremony. Tyson probably would only understand half of what was going on. His little four year old brother...Percy felt a couple tears fall. Tyson who he spent so long trying to save, was losing his older brother. Fifty million for Tyson...what bullshit. Percy was never even going to get to see that little squirt again.

“Scatter!” A voice yelled from beyond the haze that had become Percy’s entire existence. The world was blurring, becoming unrecognizable other than the red line over his white text name. The ground shook though that might have just been Percy’s imagination, just like the crashing of feet around him and the clashing of metal swords.

Something bumped him, kicking him out of the way. Light flashed overhead, a scream pierced the air. “RUN!”

A camera floated near where he was, watching everything. Percy wished he could tell it something, anything. One last message for his family, for Grover. But he couldn’t even breathe much less talk.

Something stumbled over him. Percy could just see the edge of purple cloak splattered red at the bottom. Their health bar was in the yellow. Whoever it was never stopped to turn back. They kept running, breaking between the tree and disappearing into the forest.

Percy hoped they got away. Oh gods he hoped everyone got away.

The ground was definitely shaking now. The pain in his stomach spiked with each vibration, but he couldn’t even find the strength to cry out. A crack appeared in the ground right next to him, widening, with each ragged breath he puffed out. Another scream. The crack shook violently. Percy watched helplessly as it crept towards him in slow motion, devouring the ground until he could feel himself falling into the inky blackness. For a second Percy couldn’t tell if it was his consciousness or the actual hole that was forming.

Suddenly Percy was jerked back. Pain stabbed through his body, attacking from everywhere at once. He spit out more blood, then everything really went black.

***

Percy gasped to life. It was freezing, he was moving. Percy flailed out his arms, trying to desperately find something to stop himself. The world was dark blue changing and moving lucidly. Percy wasn’t even touching the ground. His lungs burned, he couldn't breath.

Light shined from his left. He reached for it.

Percy broke the survive, gasping for air. White froth tossed into the air with his frantic movements. The river dragged him relentlessly down it's treacherous watery path. Percy struggled to keep his head above. The undercurrents ripped and tore at his boots and tangled his cloak around his arms. His foot skidded on the surface of a hard rock.

A roaring filled his ears, the water tightened around him pressing his chest and his stomach like a vice. Percy fought it with all the strength he had, grasping wildly for everything nearby, tree branches, big rocks, fallen logs, anything to slow his speed.

His hands found a branch only for it to hiss and snap at him in a wicked fast motion. Percy let out a yell as he dropped the snake into the river with him. His knee banged against a sharp rock. The roar thundered up ahead, where the icy currents dropped off to a steep pool. Percy wasn’t sure he wanted to know exactly how far down the drop was.

He jumped frantically at another branch. His fingers wrapped around it tightly making sure it wasn’t another digital snake. His body ached as the river coursed trying to tear him in half. Percy resisted the urge to black out again. Cold wet drops leaked from his bangs down into his eyes. The tree let loose a cracking sound but it held his weight as he strained to get one slippery hand over the other.

The bank was made of tiny pebbles that felt like Legos, but Percy couldn’t have cared less. He fell to his knees breathing heavily. Every exhale brought a bout of shivering from his entire freezing body. He felt like he’d been in a meat locker without any thermal protection for a couple hours.

A breeze whispered through the trees, bringing a chill that was so cold Percy’s teeth were chattering. The sky above him was growing dark, like sunset. Soon it would be too dark to see his own hand in front of his face. The waterfall drowned out any sound of other living beings. The trees hunkered over it like beaten old men. The branches were full, stretching every which way, without rhyme or reason.

It seemed that he was completely alone.

To his left his name floated, spelling out his all-too-familiar stats. For a moment he’d hoped that maybe it had all been a bad dream. He was really at home, about to wake up and get a bowl full of that oatmeal his mother and brother had made. He was going to heed Grover’s advice and not login no matter what. He’d let -Chasing- win this year, and use the money for whatever reason she wanted it.

**Health: 85%**

Percy let out a breath, wishing it wasn’t so cold. The stab wound through his stomach was gone. The stain was clearly there, as well as the hole in his favorite battle outfit. The cut in his side didn’t hurt anymore either: it had closed up.

Who…?

Percy tapped his menu. The time was 7:34 approximately half an hour before it was sundown all over the board. He breathed heavily, wiping water from his eyes again. His cloak felt like it was made of cinder block. The trident on his back was glowing a bit, but faded as he spent more time out of the water.

It had been so long since Percy had need to use it, he’d forgotten why he had originally taken the flashy over cover. It was a healer cloak, the type that can only be bought for significant amounts of money. An older player by the named Chiron had been selling it, claiming he had no use for it.

To be honest Percy had only been interested at first because it was blue, and he liked color coordinating his outfits. What? His mother often rubbed off on him. Chiron had told him all about how he was changing games, converting to a series that was dry and arid and he had no use for a cape’s that healing power only activated in water. He sold it to Percy for about a tenth of the original price after they exchanged weapons and a couple hard to find items, like a Cup of Fire. It had been so long Percy forgot what they had traded.

He looked around the dense forest again.

Who...who else had known about his cloak? If even he had forgotten about the healing power of his wardrobe then who the Hell had known it?

They had saved his life.

Percy swiped his hand over this menu again, causing his settings to flash up. All the items he’d stored were gone (he wasn’t too upset, the double daggers were almost worn out anyway). But to his surprise and delight, all his wardrobe sets were still in place. The pale light reflected on the water as he clicked the buttons he needed to switch to a new outfit: a navy blue armoured top and dry pants. He switched his running shoes to hiking boots, which were better for the terrain for now. For a second he debated over keeping his soaking cloak, but he agreed that it might be best. It was after all, his best cloak so far. It had actually saved his life.

A red light flashed over his menu, scaring the life out of him. He almost fell back into the river, but at the last possible second he leaned forward again and calmed his heart rate.

  **Warning: Five Minutes Until Night**

Percy minimized the alarm.

Five minutes until everything got a whole lot harder. Wasn’t that how it always worked? As soon as night hit, the monsters came out, the zombies attacked, the shadows became poison, the assassin was covered and unstoppable.

Percy swallowed hard allowing for the first time his eyes to drift to the side that he never had a reason to look at. The small square that rested just under his health bar wedged between the map and the internet connection icons.

Friends.

He’d never friended anyone before. He’d always had trouble talking to people other than his family, Rachel, and Grover. Rachel didn’t play full immersion games like Percy did, and since he used Grover’s headset, Percy and Grover were never on at the same time he’d never gotten a chance to friend the other boy. Percy didn’t mind not having virtual friends; he worked better solo, without anyone to depend on him or vice versa.

But -Chasing-’s user icon, an owl, hovered there and it made Percy’s stomach flip just looking at it. Had she been the one who helped him? Had she known about the cloak? Or did she think he was dead like everyone else probably did? Percy rubbed the spot where the sword had gutted him. Then he clicked -Chasing-’s icon and opened the map.

The 3D map glowed a light blue, that was reflected off the nearby rushing waters. Percy was honestly surprised at his first look at the playing field. In the past the Age Of Heroes tournament was played on small worlds that were centered around maybe one or two themes, like last year it was a complex roman city, and the year before a summer camp complete with a canoe lake and a bonfire pit. Percy had heard that Olympus was getting some grief over the terrains, but he didn’t think that would stop them from making a player board that would give the advantage to only one set of skills.

He was wrong. The map was split up by the river and the tributaries that broke off around five times. He was in the forest part, a good distance from the starting spot, but he guessed that was the river’s doing. To the north there was another city, but it looked like suburbs instead of a big Roman getup. To the west of the city, it seemed to be a trailer park, with rows and rows of rectangular mobile homes. To the south was all the rest of the dark and dense forest that took up more than a fourth of the map. If he headed west he might come across the starting point again. Past that it looked to be some kind of Indian Teepee set up with triangular homes in a circle. The farthest from Percy seemed to be...some type of graveyard? Percy stared at it for a couple moments wonder why the Hell anyone would add that to the terrain.

A spot of light caught his eye in the growing darkness. Her blimp showed up, orange as fire. She wasn’t moving, just sitting at a house that was in the city to the north of where Percy was currently. Percy estimated he could make it to her in an hour, as long as nothing horrible happened to him before that. And as long as nothing terrible happened to her either.

“Like that’s going to happen.” Percy muttered to himself.

There were other blimps that were scattered all across the terrain. But none were near the river. There were two by the Teepee camp, one in the graveyard. Two were playing hide and seek in the trailer yard, while one hid inside one. One was straying around the starting point. Another two blimps revealed a pair heading towards the city. And another two a good while south of Percy’s current position. His eyes lingered on the warm orange glow of the only online friend he had. At least -Chasing- wasn’t alone. She had two dots in the house with her.

Percy prayed that neither of those were that Kronos guy.

She was his only online friend. His first and probably his last.

Percy did a head count. His stomach did an impressive flip. Fifteen. He counted again. There were only fifteen markers on the field.

There had been fifteen of them to start. Percy couldn’t breath for a second. Does this mean that Kronos doesn’t show up on the map? He looked around quickly, watching the dark shadows as if they were going to leap out at him and finish the job that Kronos didn’t get to complete. This game...it wasn’t suppose to be like this. The map is coded completely different than the terrain or the players or the avatars even. You can’t just not appear on the field. The system doesn’t work like that.

Unless the Titan’s changed that.

Something in Percy sank. He let out a shaky sob, but even he couldn’t hear it over the waterfall.

There was another explanation, but Percy didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to think that it was possible for one of the players to be lying on the ground somewhere. He didn’t want to think that there was someone who was looking at the night sky and not even seeing the virtual realities graphics. Percy Jackson didn’t want to think that one of those very real, very alive, players from earlier was now just a checkmark on an assassin’s hitlist.

The wind blew carrying a sinister feel to it. Percy looked up at the purple and blue night sky sprinkled with white little lights.

“Mom,” He said, even though there was no camera, no way for her to ever hear him, “Tyson….I’m okay. I’m alive. I...I’m sorry for causing you guys so much trouble. Don’t cry, okay? Because I’m going to make it back to you. Grover, buddy, watch over them until then. I’m trusting you. I swear on my sword, I’ll do whatever it takes to make it back to you.” His voice broke, “I’ll be back.”

He stood up, brushing damp sand off his pant and turning back to the trees. The darkness was like a curtain inside there. If this Kronos guy got ahold of a bow and arrow, there was no way Percy was going to be able to see it, much less dodge it. He pulled out his sword, the bronze tip glowing faintly. 

He was solo player. He done things alone and completed them better than hordes of teams could. He didn't need a guild. He didn't need a team. He could take out this guy by himself.

He looked at the river, “I’ll be back soon, Tyson.”

Then he plunged into the forest again.

 


	5. Chapter 5

Percy ducked as the black form sailed over his head. It was huge, from the parts that Percy could see in the dim light of his sword. Quite frankly, he didn’t want to know just how large it was. For him to find out it had to be within the range of his bronze light, and Percy didn’t fancy being revived just to get eaten by a video game.

Whatever it was, it had red glowing eyes, that shined like laser beams. Percy was surprised they weren’t actual laser beams. He expected it would have a bigger advantage. Percy took a step back trying to get his breathing down again.

He raised his sword right as it howled. The sound was chilling, beyond anything he’d ever heard. The moonlight came through the trees, breaking the shadows like cracks in a mirror. Black fur looked like oil, white teeth glistened with wet slobber, and every pant held the barely restrained hunger for food. Percy could feel the horrible sensation coming off the beast in waves so powerful, he felt like he was drowning. 

“Come on beastie,” Percy snarled at it, “You want me? Come and get me!” 

It pounced.

Percy slashed his sword to the side, feel the blade stiffen and rip at the flesh. The monster howled again falling to the side. It collapsed on a tree. The sticky metallic smell of blood wafted off it. Percy twisted his grip on his blade. The beast look up at him and growled, struggling to get up again. 

The dead leaves and dirt covering the ground were splotched with scarlet puddles. Percy could feel it under his boots, slimey and staining. The monster lunged for his head, but Percy anticipated it. He crouched and let it stumbled over him and collapse against another tree. The teenager, inhaled sharply and drove his weapon into the side of the dying monster. 

It sparkled and flashed gold, before breaking off into the chips of code that it was. The golden dust settled and Percy fell to his knee. Sweat dripped off his brow. There was a cut in his arm, but it had stopped bleeding a couple monsters ago. He staggered upright again checking his stats. He was fine on health, for now. At least, he was nowhere near the percentage that he’d been at just a couple hours ago. 

His map read out that very little had changed. The blimps kept moving, but -Chasing- and her companions stayed where they were. He needed to know where Kronos was, but against every judgement he had he kept walking towards the suburbs. 

It wasn’t like he wanted help. He wasn’t even sure if -Chasing- would believe he was alive. Sure, the blimps told them where each player was, but it didn’t glow for friends unless you pulled up their friend account as well. His eyes flinted to her page. According to the stats he had, she was still at 92% health. Which, was Percy was willing to bet, was better than a lot of other players. 

Two more blimps had entered the city from the trailer park. Percy had to guess it was one of the teams. They were racing side by side like friends. Not like shit-there’s-a-crazy-killer-right-behind-me-I’m-gonna-die! 

Percy took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. The urge to sleep was creeping up on him worse than the monsters that were hunting in the forest. A camera buzzed nearby, the hum that had gotten rather familiar. It seemed to be drawn to where ever there was a fight, and recorded every painstaking moment of survival. Percy resisted the urge to look at it. 

The same camera had been following him around to every fight he had. He doubted anyone recognized him on it with all the shadows. He had yet to look directly at one since he’d gotten stabbed earlier.

He wasn’t sure what it was, but he didn’t really want anyone to know he was alive. Like what if the Titan’s were watching, right now? They did have complete control of the game world. He might have been a tad bit paranoid thinking that the Titans could just whip something up and crush him with just a couple lines of code. That would be kinda anti climatic. Whoops, Riptide who was just brought to life again and swore to kill this murderer guy just died because a tree fell and crushed his bones into powdered dust.

Percy figured he’d spent so much time lying to his mother, about him having a job, about him going to that fake job, about him not entering this murder game, he couldn’t make it any worse by not telling her directly he was alive. There had to be another way, but Percy wasn’t going to sit there and try to figure it out while he was being hunted by a pack of giant black dogs.

He had better things to do.

Percy got up turning his back to the camera fully. He doubted the lense could pick up his Trident logo on his back in the inky darkness much less the tiny white text bounced with his every step. 

Percy carefully walked towards the path that he’d been following, a dodge in an out of the tree lines, his swords bravely leading him hopefully not into the rough bark of a tree trunk. He’d done that enough tonight, too.

The trees had been getting thinner but it was taking as long as the time itself. The trip that should’ve only taken an hour, had stretched into a three hour and some minute journey. 

“I use to enjoy the woods.” Percy whispered to himself, if only to remind his ears that there was sound in the world. Then he huffed and picked up his pace. Silent as a ghost, deadly as a ninja, graceful as a-

Percy tripped over his shoes and face planted into the ground.

He groaned, looking up at his stats. He lost 2% health. “Are you kidding me?” He asked the ghostly text. Somewhere nearby the camera hummed almost like laughter. 

That was just what he needed. Fighting monsters and tripping in the dark. What’s next? Falling down an endless abyss with his girlfriend?

Pshh, like he’d ever have a girlfriend.

Percy had listened to enough of Grover’s dreamly cloud-nine, slightly stalkerish, reports about this one girl he had his eyes on, Juniper or something. She was a track star for the school team and an important member of the Eco club. Percy had never talked to her before (shocker, right?) but when Grover saw her his eyes blurred over as if he was seeing twenty years into the future, where he was happily married to that popular girl, had two kids, a job, and Percy was distant memory of some guy he hung out with in High School.

Percy had never once seen a girl that had made him do that. He wasn’t going to lie, most girls terrified him to no end, but then again talking to other people often terrified him just as much. Even online when he was Riptide, master swordsman, he found the idea of another person, someone who didn’t think like him, or had the same opinions as him, scared. How could he cope with that? What if he did something that another person thought was senseless? What if he did something and he got another player virtually killed and they had to restart everything?

It seemed like forever ago, Grover had been asking him if he was ever going to join a guild, become part of a team. Percy was a solo player, that was the only thing he had ever known how to be. 

If he couldn’t make a team before, what chance did he have now? The stakes were unimaginably higher than just restarting. People can’t restart after death. 

Percy swallowed hard as his foot hit a fallen tree branch and echoed with a loud  _ Craaaackk!  _ through the thinning forest. His eyes darted around waiting for that monster to come flying at him from the depths of the dark Hell. Nothing moved. 

To be honest, Percy would have preferred something come down on top of him screaming bloody murder, instead of the strange quiet that followed. Percy gingerly took another step. His bronze light didn’t pull anything from the shadows. 

The only explanation Percy could think of was that someone had already run through this part of the board and taken out the monsters. He figured it wasn’t too unreasonable. He was reaching the outskirts of town, and -Chasing- and co could have taken this route to get to the town houses. Still it didn’t sit right with Percy. Would it not regenerate? 

“Well, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” He decided, in a voice so low he might as well have just thought it to himself. It was a lot more comforting before he remembered the Trojan War, and the gift horse that slaughtered and enslaved all the inhabitants and burned Troy to the ground. 

Up ahead Percy found the trees thinning even more. He rushed the next couple of steps, finding the moonlight, becoming brighter and in bigger patched. Up ahead he found a wooden fence, marking the edges of a lawn. It took everything Percy had not to start whooping at the top of his lungs.

He made it. 

Without dying, bonus points!

He wasn’t sure why he felt so relieved to be in the city. At least now he knew where more living people were. He felt like he was going to go insane with just these coded monsters and himself alone. It was like a nightmare come to life. 

Percy sheathed his sword, and reach to the top of the fence. It was enough over his head that he couldn’t see anything. He struggled for a moment before remembering he was no longer in his avatar. He was Percy Jackson. 

Percy Jackson had barely any upper body strength without adrenaline flooding his veins.

He looked around and picked out a tree nearby, hoping to every deity he could think of that there was not going to be a snake or something poisonous in it. He scrambled up the trunk remembering faintly a couple of the times his mother took him to the park when Tyson was still just a little tot. The thought sent a surge through him. He pulled himself on to the high branch. 

He straddled the branch finding it stiff and not bendy or in danger of snapping under his weight. He had no doubt the Gods of the Olympus Gaming System designed this tree to allow someone to hop the fence. It was some type of happy miracle. The branch stretched the length to fence, little green leaves fluttered in a light breeze that tugged Percy’s hood.

He surveyed the suburbs for a second. It looked….abandoned. The cars were parked irregularly, and rusted like they’d been there for a while. Trashcans were tipped over and old kids toys strewn about the lawns, colors faded from rain. Weeds ran rampant over the gardens and lawns and broke continued their takeover through the concrete sidewalk. Even from here, Percy could see a couple houses looked broken into, front doors hanging wide open and windows shattered. Old drapery hung brokenly from on window the white color seeming to have a strange color to it that Percy couldn’t see with just the moonlight. A street light flickered.

The back of his neck prickled. He shifted his weight uneasily.

The wind blew a bit harder, and some open door slammed shut, with a sound that nearly made Percy jump out of his skin. It was silent. 

Unnaturally so. Even more so than in the forest. 

With shaking hands he swiped his stats for another look at the map. Keeping one eye on the city and the area around him, he noted everyone’s positions carefully. The team that had entered the city was moving faster than earlier, still at a running pace, but faster, in a pattern that looked irregular. Percy couldn’t help but picture them being chased by a psycho in a mardi gra mask. -Chasing- and her friends were holed up in their house. Two in the trailer park had found a trailer that they were ransacking, one more was circling the playground at the board. The Graveyard ghoul was in the same spot as earlier. Percy didn’t think that blimp had moved since he’d first woken up. In the Teepee camp another group of two had made themselves chiefs. And the last two blimps that Percy could see were protecting that circle of rocks in the southern forest area. 

Still the same number of fourteen players, including himself moving around the board. Percy tried to look on the bright side. He might not know where Kronos is, but he knew that no one else had died yet.

Percy let out a shaky breath, wondering if he should just stay in that tree and sleep and pretend that this is all a dream.

No. 

He had past that point. There were other people here now, other lives. If he didn’t kill Kronos, he wouldn’t see Tyson again. He’d never hug his mother. He’d never fist bump Grover. Hell, he wouldn’t even ever see Rachel and her crazy red hair and her  _ everything-is-your-fault  _ look.

It was Kronos or his life.

Percy scooted down the tree branch and his boots hit the top of the fence with a  _ thunk. _ He didn’t wait to see if anything was waiting for him. Percy jumped to the ground, letting the grass catch him. 

He slowly got back up, unsheathing his sword again. The air had a different taste to it. It was almost stale. Percy stepped high over the knee length grass to the edge of the cul de sac. There was a tipped over Basketball hoop, and a Percy found the basketball a couple feet away. The color faded completely from the top side. 

Percy got a sick feeling in his stomach that twisted his intestines into spaghetti noodles. His stomach growled. Percy wondered how long it would be before he would get lucky enough to find a food station. Assuming that The Titans, weren’t laughing at him right now because they had taken them all out of the game. 

Of course they said they hadn’t changed much, just the rules. But then again these were the same sickos who placed a guy in here to slaughter all of them on TV. 

He walked down the road, his boots barely making a sound but it was still too loud. He swiped his menu and changed his shoes again, back to his sneakers. He ignored the coolness to them, wondering if it was just his nerves or if they were actually still wet of his dip in the river. His cloak had dried since then, except for parts around his shoulders where not much wind could move freely.

The neighborhood looked eerie, like something that Percy had seen before in his dreams. A strange sense of deja vu came over him as he noticed an old, rusted bike laying on a lawn further in. The helmet was tossed to the side, but that’s what triggered the memory. 

The helmet. 

The sleek new blue and silver Mongoose bike. 

Percy had gotten one for Christmas years ago back when Gabe had first met his mother. It was probably still in his family’s reserved shed at the Apartment building. He would be way too tall for it now, but he’d assumed he could keep it for Tyson. It must have been at least two years since Percy had even glanced at it. 

And yet a similar one happened to be in the game.

If Percy wasn’t already shaken up, he was now. His hands tightened nervously on his sword grip. He walked towards it, careful it make his steps as silent as possible. The street light flickered off but the moonlight was more than enough to compensate. 

It wasn’t just a similar bike. With a closer look, Percy realized it was  _ his _ bike alright. The same scuffs on the slightly bent frame, from when Percy rode it down a staircase (no one ever said he was brightest kid ever…), twisted handlebar grips that Percy had done himself, almost ripping off the left one entirely. The chain was off for a could of loops just like the one in his shed, from some other accident that Percy couldn’t hand repair it from. 

It was just that. The bike and helmet. Percy nudged the protective gear over with his toe jerking his hands back ready for some bike monster to leap at him. Cold sweat broke out on his neck.

Nothing happened. 

Under the helmet was a small sandwich baggie, with something in it. Like a child’s keepsake. A poorly hidden treasure. Exactly the type of thing Percy would do. He knelt in the overgrown grass, praying that he didn’t get some type of tick or something, and picked it up. 

Immediately, his menu screen flashed open of it’s own accord.

**New Item Acquired!: Ambrosia**

Percy had never heard of Ambrosia in his life. He was surprised to even see that he could acquire items still. He examined the baggie with curiosity. Inside it contained an amber colored square. It looked like frozen apple juice but it wasn’t even close to being cold. He frowned.  

**Save New Item in Storage?**

Percy clicked the “okay” and rubbed his jaw. It didn’t even come with a description. How was he suppose to know what it was? Was it food? What if it was poison? He checked his inventory to see if it even showed any of the clues that normally came with items: a skull and crossbones for poisons ( to be used to paralyse or blind a player), a cross clergy items (like faith books to dispel demons or holy daggers), an arcane star for magical items (Like staffs), a sword for attack items (weapons with bigger attack points) or even a shield (for defense bonuses). It had none. 

What the actual Hell.

Why would the game designers do this.

Percy rubbed his tired eyes, stifling a yawn. He was so tired. The grass looked peaceful enough. No one was around. Percy wondered if it would be his biggest and last mistake to just collapse next to this bike and sleep for a little while. 

The silence was still cold and unnatural, but Percy didn’t have to worry about it for long, as it was broken in the next second with one, ear piercing scream that every other player in the game heard.

 


	6. Chapter 6

Percy was cursing himself even before he was running towards the noise

He sprinted away from the bike. His heart thudded in his throat. Where had it come from?

For some reason, Percy could only picture -Chasing- lying face up on the ground somewhere, blood splattering the ground and her hypnotizing grey eyes staring at nothing. His hands shook, finding his sword hilt. She couldn’t…..She couldn’t be dead.

She was his only friend. 

His shoes slapped the asphalt echoing around him, in a haze of sound. Whatever was lingering about in this section, let them come. 

Percy would slaughter them all to save -Chasing-.

Was that normal? Percy didn’t spend the time to figure it out.

He moved at a speed he hadn’t thought he could do in his avatar, much less his real body. He focused on the thought of that mysterious blonde girl. The one he suddenly seemed to care so much about. Just thinking her user handle made his heartbeat faster, his blood roar. He swore she even made his step longer. 

Anything to find her sooner. 

He leapt over a discarded trash can and bounded around the street corner. There was a figure lying on the ground. Percy’s stomach was in his throat. The body was fully visible in the moonlight. He could see the shredded fabric of the clothes and the dark liquid of the blood under the body. Percy couldn’t move for a second.

Who was it? Who else had been in the city?

No floating text remained by them. If Percy was going to find out he was going to have to walk up to the body and and look down at the once living person. Cold sweat broke on his neck as he scanned the area.

What had killed them? Had it been Kronos?

Percy took the first step forwards, his feet feeling like he was marching through tar to his grave. The wind blew frantically, a warning that he wasn’t heeding. Somewhere nearby the buzz of a camera hummed.

This street was nearly identical to the one he’d just been down. Broken, abandoned houses that glittered in the moonlight. No street lights were lit. The air seemed frigid around here, making it hard to believe that once this had just been a game. Everywhere he looked, Percy felt like he could see someone standing in the shadows, training a bow and arrow, a gun, a laser attack right at his body. The grass was peaked and yellowed, Vines conquering dominance over the buildings. Old cars lined the parts of the driveway, still waiting for an owner who wasn’t coming back for them. 

Percy stopped again, his nervous on high alert. The body….

It was a girl. A girl with dark hair. Her head was tilted away from him so he could only see part of her face. Her eyes were closed, her mouth open in her last scream. Blood was puddled around her, reflecting the moonlight, in a humourless glow.

But something was wrong

It wasn’t one of the players.

Percy yelled out as the dead body leapt to life. In a swift motion it’s boney fingers wrapped around his ankle digging the decayed nails into his skin. Percy’s brain short circuited on panic. He scrambled back, yelling bloody murder. The girl hung on tight, half her face was already eaten away, exposing the bone of her skull. Her eyes were bright yellow, and unnatural. She lunged for him, and Percy landed a solid kick to her face throw her back into a junkie car. 

She hit with a heavy sound leaving a dent in the side door.

Her hand remained clasped to Percy’s leg. The feeling was like ice, freezing his entire being. The girl got up her bones, chafing each other in a  _ shhft shhfttt  _ sound. Her jaw was slack, broken, and swinging grotesquely by one side with her sloppy uncoordinated movements. The grey skin across her body had ripped upon her landing all the skin off her side were peeled and hanging off her body as if they were just another layer of fabric to her ruffled shirt.

Percy scrapped the hand off his leg. His own blood was dripping down his leg. The sight of the scarlet color scared him to his core. His hands were shaking so bad he could barely hold his sword. Nausea clawed its way up his throat but he couldn’t take his eyes off the inhumane thing in front of him. 

He wanted to  scream. He wanted to scream so bad he engaged the automatic logout and pulled himself out of the game. The Titans had disengaged the auto logout. Otherwise Percy would have been logged out when he hit 5% health and his brain decided to shut off.

When had been the last time he’d fought with Zombies? Year ago. It had been the first game Grover told him to play, Sanction Island. Percy hated that game. It was too real. It was too horrifying. The coding had been done too well. Even before it had been hacked by that one guy, people had stopped playing because it was too realistic. It was a nightmare.

Sanction Island had been an amo game, with guns and pvp play. Percy could shoot a gun to save his life. The idea was horrifying to him. He could take someone’s life even in a game before they even knew he was there. Guns didn’t give warnings the only time you could dodge was if you saw the gunner before he shot. 

If Percy was going to defeat someone, he’d rather it be by Riptide’s blade. He’d rather it be by his hands, knowing that this person was just a series of complex coding that made an avatar. Besides he couldn’t hit a target even if his life depended on it. A pit in his stomach reminded him that it was very possible that he could end up real life dead because of this. 

“Pla….yers…..” The Zombie girl moaned out. Percy felt his body chill at the sound of her clattering broken jawed, english. Her voice was whispers, her torn vocal chords making the sound seem like part of the wind. “Pla….yers….”

“Well,” Percy swallowed hard, “You got the creepiness going for you.” His voice was feeble, shaking, but he couldn‘t catch his breath long enough gather his fleeting courage.

“Rip….tide….” Her eyes sparked that eerie yellow.

The urge to run was swelling in his chest. But another scream broke the air. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end. Zombie Girl’s head tilted to the side like she was listening to harmonic music. 

“-Chasing-,” Percy whispered. 

The girl moved with a clumsy swiftness. No grace involved. Percy had no trouble slicing her body in half. His blade cut through her decaying shirt and her empty body like warm butter. Bile rose in Percy’s mouth. 

Her torso dropped to the ground, like a pile of wet sand. Blood dripped off the edge of his sword, the color almost as black as the sky. She must have been one of the earliest coded ones. Percy gagged, stumbling back.

“Rip...tide…” The zombie hissed. Her head snapped up to him, her jaw dragging across the road. Her fingers on her one hand clawed the ground dragging her half a body towards him. “Rip...tide.” 

Percy took another step back and emptied his stomach on the front lawn of some long gone family. The Zombie let out a chattering of noise, as she lost the rest of her jaw. Percy turned and ran as fast as he could.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our hero fights some zombies, makes some friends, and runs away. Not necessarily in that order.

The first person Percy saw tried to kill him. Which Percy actually understood. If he had the ability to see things coming out of nowhere and he was trapped in a Zombiefied city, he’d kill everything that moved above 15 miles per hour. 

But on the other hand, Percy was certain that he looked a lot different from a zombie.

He’d know. He’d run into a whole throng of the mindless, undead monsters. They were still following him. And he was starting to panic. His stomach heaved but there was nothing left for him to vomit out. The smell was following him around so closely he doubted he’d be able to eat again either.

His ankle had stopped bleeding, but another Zombie, who must have been based on a construction worker, had gotten his arm with a deep cut. Percy checked his health stats trying to catch his breath in the alcove of a tipped over car. The Zombies were still down the street but their groaning was getting louder, as well as the crowd he was gathering. It looked like every Zombie was thinking the same thing:  _ Riptide has delicious brains!  _

Percy had met half a dozen teachers that would have told them not to waste their time; his brain was empty. Yay, school system!

Percy wiped his clammy hands on his pants. He stood up again. He was coming up to the more urban side of the town. There were the beginnings of shops now. Percy didn’t dare stop at any of them. He’d saw a boutique where the latest fashions were ripped and bloody. He was sure the Zombies were groaning up a storm as they slammed on the glass window trying to follow him like a gaggle of wild fangirls. 

Blood coated his shoes, and the helm of if his blue lifesaving cloak. Riptide was getting hard to hold with the blood on his handle. Percy couldn’t get it out of his head. This was blood. It was on everything. 

He hated Zombie games.

He hated the idea of Zombie games.

He hated Grover for suggesting that he ever play a zombie game. 

He knew it was just a game. He knew that these weren’t real. But the greater portion of his brain kept screaming at him. He could die, therefore this all had to be real too. He couldn’t afford to look at it any different.

He also didn’t want to think what would happen if he got bitten. Good gods, would he actually die? Would his body in the game wonder around and try to kill everyone else too? 

He understood why -Chasing- had resigned herself to that building. She and whoever was with her had probably gotten trapped. What if the zombies had broken through the walls and that’s why someone was screaming? The idea of -Chasing- walking around mindlessly made Percy want to throw up again.

“Rip...tide….” The Zombies moaned again getting closer. Percy started running again. Zombies were appearing everywhere he looked. From the alleys, from the stores, slamming on the glass windows of forgotten cars. The street lights were blown out here, a car had slammed into a brick wall recently though. It must have been another player, because the gas was leaking down the street like the car was bleeding out as well. 

Percy slid in the black liquid trying to take a sharp turn as a cheerleader and football player zombie appeared in front of him. They snapped at his hood but Percy moved just in time and slid down the narrow street. 

He glanced behind him, praying that the conversion of so many zombies in on narrow spot might slow them down.

He missed looking ahead to where two figures were running straight at him. 

“Look out!” Someone yelled. Percy whipped around just in time to see a golden spatha coming right down on him.

“Shit!” He yelled blocking it. For a moment he and his opponent stood weapons locked staring at each other in shock. A flash of movement caught his eye, and Percy rolled to the side just barely avoiding becoming a lovely red fountain. 

“What the Hell?!” The other attacker said, “I didn’t know these zombies could move that fast!” 

“If you stab me Hawtstufz9, I will gladly return the favor!” Percy panted. 

They both stopped, giving Percy a chance to recognize the person with the boy and their floating white statistics. Hawtstufz9 was wielding a dagger, though that didn’t seem to be his own weapon, because he was holding it wrong. His eyes were dark, and his empty hand was holding open his menu. xClassicx was standing next to him breathing heavily, sweat beading down her face and mixing with a cut on her cheek.

“Riptide?” They said at the same time. 

“I thought you died!” Hawtstufz9 exclaimed.

“I saw you die!” xClassicx gasped.

Percy looked behind him at the zombies that were gaining on them. “Well, I didn’t.” Percy shrugged, “I’m kinda in a hurry….”

“Holy Shit, man!” The scrawny boy panted, “We’ve been cut off!” 

Percy didn’t understand until he looked past the two of them and saw the tsunami of zombies heading towards them from that way chanting the their usernames. He cursed. A floating camera hummed over them zooming in on the delicious details of their deaths.

“Back to back!” xClassicx commanded, turning around and spinning her grip on her curious weapon. Percy roughly did as she said, feeling sick to his stomach. “Nine, got anything?”

From the corner of his eye he saw the other boy frantically swiping through his menu. It was unlike anything that Percy had seen before. The text was reading out numbers and entries and lines of code. 

“What the Hell is that?” He asked.

“Nothing, xClassicx,” Hawtstufz9 replied ignoring Percy entirely, “I haven’t hacked zombie codes since Sanction Island. I-I--Damnit! I can’t remember!”

“Figure something out!” She yelled back at him. 

The boy whimpered, “Well, at least I’ll make a very sexy zombie!”

“Duck!” Percy yelled as the first of the zombies reached towards the distracted Hawtstufz9. Percy decapitated it and kicked the body back into the mass. Green decaying hands reached towards them. Percy moved in a whirlwind sliced them all off. Hawtstufz9 let out a scream as Percy moved in front of him. 

The boy looked surprised that Percy would make such a move, but he didn’t have time to dwell on that. He swept Riptide in a defensive strike, hacking an undead businessman to bite sized bits. Blood splattered on the other Zombies staining their clothes. But Percy looked to be the only one who cared. Blood stuck to his hands, slipping between his fingers the tighter he held his blade.

The stench was overwhelming. Percy’s head throbbed with the attempt just to stay conscious. He moved as fast as he could, but there were too many. The grey peeling skin and the ice cold touch was too close for Percy to keep everything at bay. He couldn’t see xClassicx but he could hear her yells and grunts as she tried to keep up with the sheer numbers. Hawtstufz9 must have given up on whatever he was doing as well and was fighting in a strange set of motions like he was fighting with a sword only he had a dagger.

The Zombies moved, and Percy saw it.

Just for the second, everything seemed to slow.

He yanked his blade through a neck and saw the gap in the crowd. Slim but there. Percy could break through and get out.

It was instinct. To run.

To run very far away. 

He was a solo player. All that mattered was his own survival. The nails of a half rotten zombie dragged down his other arm but Percy barely felt it. He dragged his sword about him protectively. 

Then...he was free.

“Riptide!” A voice yelled at him. 

He looked back at the mass of monsters surrounding the other two players. xClassicx was looking at him with pleading eyes, her shirt was covered in red zombie blood. Her sword was keeping the Zombies at bay just enough for her to see that he’d broke ranks and gotten free. 

Hawtstufz9 was back to back with her, up to his arms in blood. His health bar was in the red, just like everything around him. He was struggling to keep up.

Percy looked back at the other empty streets, unable to breathe.

“xClas...sicx…” The Zombies chanted, “Hawt...stufz….”It seemed that now that he was away, the zombies no longer cared about him. The prospect of easier targets must have been too much.

He was a Solo Player.

_ “Help!”  _

Percy looked back at her. “Sorry,” He whispered. 

Percy sprinted in the opposite direction, pretending like he hadn’t seen her horrified look, or the golden tears that were slipping down her cheeks. Pretending that even though he twenty feet away and the Zombies were all groaning and grunting loudly, he couldn’t hear her gasp cry of betrayal from where he stood. 

He was a Solo Player. He didn’t have a team. He couldn’t protect himself most times, how could he help them? His best chance was to run.

Run until he could hear their screams and then continue his search of Kronos and make sure no one else dies. 

“Fuck.” 

Percy glanced up to the rooftops, and then back to his wrists, where his duel bracelets were pulsing. They had been a neat blue when Percy had equipped them back at the river after he had changed his outfit, but now they were as red as his hands. 

**Warning: One Use Left.**

It was the first magic item he’d ever gotten. 

xClassicx screamed. He looked up just in time to see a zombie freak had gotten under her guard and dragged her down, under the tide of the digital monsters.

Percy activated the bracelets and threw his hands up.

All at once everything broke.

Shattering, rumbling, explosions, the fire hydrant next to Percy was the first to go, followed by the plumbing of the shops and the Water Tower a couple streets over. Everything popped and shot water into the air.

Cold refreshing rain. Percy could feel it all with just this one item. His eyes burned bright blue, the faint pain in his arms disappeared within seconds. Percy took a deep breath. 

He’d at least get one last good use from this gift. 

He threw his hands forwards. The Water, every ounce, every drop, followed his hands with deadly accuracy. The entire street flooded. Water poured down on the zombies tearing their flimsy, decaying bodies apart and tossing them to the side.

The water was immense. Breaking against one of the shops and sloshing right back at it’s controller.

Percy let it come, bracing himself. Instead of feeling like an entire skyscraper fell on top of him, it only felt like a two story condo had dropped on his head.

The force knocked him to the ground and dragged him back up with swift movements that nearly disoriented him. Percy flung his eyes open, and grabbed the nearest thing: a window ledge from a nearby bakery. He clung until he felt like his fingers were going to fall off.

The water was murky but Percy could see through it, with the glow his healing cloak. Shredded bodies and stains of blood floated right past him as he searched for the bodies of the other players.

He saw Hawtstufz9 first, his cheeks bloated with the effort to hold his breath. He was hanging on to a broken street lamp across the road to keep from being torn away by the current and his eyes squeezed shut. xClassicx was in his arms like a throw blank, limp, and wet but with bubbles trailing from her mouth.

She was still alive.

Percy pulled his legs in and powerfully kicked off from his ledge. He swam towards them dodging a ripped off leg and something that looked like it belongs inside a body and not outside one. Percy nearly inhaled the water trying not to gag. He pulled a hand forward to direct the motion of pulling the other game players up. The change of current caught the boy off guard and Hawtstufz9 struggled but lost his grip on the lamp. His eyes opened in shock, catching sight of Percy swimming right after them. The water started to drain out, the flood carrying the torn zombies and loose debris away and leaving Percy and the players where he commanded it to.

Hawtstufz9 broke the surface and was gasping for breath. Percy popped up next to him coughing. xClassicx rest in the other boy’s arms like a dead body. Even so Hawtstufz9 took the effort to splash Percy was a handful of water.

“Jackass!” He laughed, “I thought you were going to leave us to die! Though a little warning next time might help!”

Percy grinned wiping water from his wet bangs. “Sorry,” He said, not bothering to mention at first he was going to leave them. 

“As much as I’d love to continue to praise that awesome move, we’ve got a  _ slight _ problem.” Hawtstufz9 said, as the water dropped them on the ground. Percy dropped to his knees immediately feeling like he’d run a full marathon in the desert. With a single quiet  _ pop  _ his bracelets expired and the blue magic items disappeared off his arms. 

“What...problem?” He asked.

Hawtstufz9 motioned to the unconscious xClassicx. Her head had lolled to the side and Percy saw exactly what had happened to her.

He’d been too late.

xClassicx had been bitten.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Friendships are formed, but they might not last long because they are all going to die.

Percy was not a fan of the whole let's-give-a-piggyback-ride-to-the-almost-zombie-girl idea. But Hawtstufz9 was too busy to do it himself, so the responsibility rested on Percy's shoulders. Literally.

“Uh, so why can’t you be the one to do this?” Percy asked quietly, as they shuffled through the city. The unnerving silence had fallen upon them again, just waiting until a hapless zombie found them and started the undead hurricane again. Percy doubted that if they got caught this time, there would be any way they would survive. 

xClassicx’s head bumped against his shoulder again her white floating text was mixed with his, but he could see her health bar steadily dropping. It was already halfway gone and they were only a couple streets down.

Percy shouldn’t have really been worrying about the zombie girl on his back though, considering Hawtstufz9 was limping beside him, his health bar in the red. He looked fine enough, until he made the mistake of turning and letting Percy see where a zombie had carved out his side with it’s nails.

The boy paid that no mind. He had a stupid grin on his face, giving him a mad scientist look to throw into the mix of suntanned, scrawny, and christmas elf. He’d pulled open his menu again, revealing the same chaotic mess of white text he had before. This time he looked like he knew a bit better about what he was doing. His hands flew across the air swiping and typing and copypasting things in an order that only he knew.

“Because I’m busy.” He replied, using one hand to type a series of numbers and letters and his other to pull up the map of the city. All the while his eyes darted around the street corners and suburban landscape, searching for any sign of a threat. Percy was quite impressed with this kid. He had to be at least a year younger than him, but he’d already adapted fully into this murder game.

“Uh yeah, about that,” Percy shifted xClassicx on his shoulders trying not to picture her suddenly jumping to life and digging her teeth into his neck to give him a matching bite mark, “What exactly are you doing?”

Hawtstufz9 rubbed his chin, “Well I was trying to hack my way out of the system, but having no luck, I’m trying to find the access code for the zombies and delete them from the game.”

“What?”

The smaller boy sighed, and made a face at the floating text, “I’m already in the game mainframe. If I can find the code for how the zombies were made then I can delete the string and it will delete the zombies from the game entirely. Then we won’t have to worry about that as we await our deaths via sword wielding assassin.”

Right, Percy remembered. He was a hacker. Just like the Titans, who’d taken control of the AOH tournament and turned it into the Hunger Games.

“Wait, if you’re in the mainframe, you can delete and create anything right?” Percy asked, “So you can recall my bracelets or delete Kronos?”

Hawtstufz9 snorted, “You’re funny, Riptide,” He said, “but don’t quit your day job, okay? If I could delete Kronos, I would’ve done it three weeks ago, man. The coding for each player has been extremely warped. I don’t even think I have a way to even get to the core coding. The walls around us are just too good. If I ever meet the jackass who made them….” He trailed off punching another button on his invisible keyboard. “Now, if there was some way for me to exploit a gap in the code, then I might have some small chance at turning off the headsets from inside and activating the auto logout. But the chance that Olympus didn’t code this perfectly from the start is like zero, especially if they knew I was going to be in this tournament.

“As for those sick bracelets man, I didn’t catch the code before it slipped to the trash bin. If I had I would totally bring that back. Damn, I knew I should’ve started memorising the code for ambrosia!”

“What now?” Percy’s voice came out louder than he expected, echoing off the buildings around them. But the younger boy wasn’t paying attention. He’d frozen, mid step. Staring behind them, with wide eyes. Percy could feel the fear coming off him in waves.

The sound was faint, but when Percy heard it he couldn’t move either. It was footsteps, lagged ones, but that didn’t change anything.

Percy couldn’t breathe. He slipped his hand towards his sword, trying not to drop the unconscious girl on his back, but with a sick feeling Percy realized that the only way for him to be able to fight, would be to put her down. 

Would the zombies attack her, even if she was already bitten? 

Percy could just imagine the zombies surrounding her again, just tearing her apart. Blood flying everywhere. Her clothes in tatters. Her eyes staring at the sky and not seeing anything because she was dead in the game and real life.

“Take her,” He said.

The other boy looked at him as if he’d grown another head.

“Take her and go!” Percy said again, “I’ll cover you guys.”

“Riptide….”

Percy didn’t wait for him to finish his thought. He shoved the younger girl into his arms and turned back to the street. He unsheathed his blade letting the bronze color light up the night.

“It’s obvious you can’t wield a dagger, and I don’t fancy get killed because of that!” 

Hawtstufz9 opened and closed his mouth but even his brain couldn’t seem to find a argument to Percy’s logic. Evidently, he was truly not a the owner of that dagger. Percy couldn’t help but wonder exactly how he’d and Piper Mclean had planned on winning. 

“Go!” Percy hissed at him, swinging his blade in a circle and readying himself for whatever was coming at them. Percy repeated the word in his head like a chant,  _ Go, Go, Go!  _ It would be easier for him to fight if their was no one else around. No one for Percy to accidentally kill. xClassicx was already proof of his skills in that department.

Of course, he was a solo player. Nothing could change that. He didn’t work well with others around. Maybe he just cared too much about these complete strangers.

Hawtstufz9’s footsteps were sloppy and uneven, but that barely slowed him down. Percy could hear him moving fast down the street. Until they stopped short. The short elfish boy muttered curses at the world and Percy heard him come back. 

“Fuck it,” Hawtstufz9 snapped, “I can’t just leave you here. If you die then I’m dying too.”

“I don’t plan on dying.” Percy gritted his teeth. The unmistakable hum of a camera buzzed nearby like an annoying fly. The last cue of that what was coming was a fight.

“Good,” The other boy said, rearranging xClassicx on his back and wielding his dagger in his other hand, “Because I’m too young and beautiful to die.”

Percy was tense far more than he should be. He remembered when he loved being in the game, fighting with his sword because it gave him power that he didn’t have in reality. How dare the Titans take his dream and make it a nightmare. The unmistakeable sound of a  _ Diiing!  _ sound out in the abandoned road, nearly scaring Percy out of his pants.

The orange light drew his head to his menu.

“My name is Leo.” Hawtstufz9 said faintly. In the moonlight, he seemed to have some type of halo around himself. His curly brown hair was slick with sweat, and his eyes seemed holding back...tears? His voice was watery. “Let’s not die, Riptide.” Hawtstu-- Leo, said, “Because then I’d feel really sucky about you knowing my name and me never knowing yours!” 

Leo. 

Percy glanced briefly back at his menu and the new friend request that was patiently waiting for a response. 

For some reason Percy felt warm clicking the accept button. It was so foreign looking and seeing that he now had two friends. Wait till Grover saw. He’d probably make a joke out of it. 

_ “What, are you replacing me, you little jackass?! Give me my headset so I can go friend a bunch of strangers too!!” _

The thought made Percy smile a bit. It vanished when he saw exactly what had been following them. 

Percy guessed it could’ve been worse. It could’ve been a swarm of zombies so big it covered half the city. It could’ve been Zombies that look like his family, like Tyson or his mom (Percy didn’t think he’d have a problem driving his sword into Gabe’s head). IT could have been a pack of those wild midnight black furred dogs that had been following him back in the forest and the river. 

But it wasn’t. 

Even in the darkness it was all too clear to Percy. Everything seemed to slow down. Percy couldn’t seem to swallow. His throat was too dry. The camera twisted and jerked looking between all of them. 

Looking to get the last pictures of them before their deaths. 

Percy wondered briefly if Leo had any family in the real world. A mom? A dad? Sibling? Someone who would be freaking out as much as his mom and best friend were probably doing right now. What a sense of false hope he’d sent out. Percy revealing he was alive and fighting only to come face to face with the very thing that he swore he was going to kill. 

Kronos appeared out of the shadows lazily, as if killing them had no real value in it.

Percy tighten the grip on his sword. This was it. Boss level max. All he had to do was kill this person in the mask. Despite that, Percy’s hands were shaking. 

It happened almost faster than he could blink. The motion so swift, so fluid, that it looked as if his arm had never even moved. The whistled of the knife so quick, so fast that Percy’s blood ran cold.

Almost faster than he could blink he knocked the poisoned bronze dagger out of the air inches from lodging in Leo’s chest. It clattered on the ground and for a second no one dared move.

Leo broke the silence with a whimper, “I’m guessing it’s too late to run.” 

Under his mask, Percy was sure Kronos was grinning.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy and Kronos face off again. What could go wrong?

When Percy’s life flashed before his eyes he saw basically two things. The first was a montage of his virtual life as Riptide. A series of him debating his first couple of names ( _ PJackson576, WaterSlicer, Persassy)  _ before acquiring his amazing sword that lead him to his fame. Countless battles all by himself, doing the impossible,  _ being _ the impossible. Everything, all in short millisecond flashes that wouldn’t make sense to any other living being.

The second thing was more surprising. Percy had always figured that it would be something like Tyson, or Grover, or his mom, but for some reason that didn’t make sense at all…it wasn’t. It was the brief interactions with -Chasing-.

Her stony face, a mask of her cunningness. Her grey eyes sparkling from her real face. Her real grey eyes that were so full of life that Percy knew they couldn’t just be coded into an avatar. Her blonde curls that looked stupendous on her, even better than her brown hair. The distinct smell of...her. Percy couldn’t figure out what it really was, a mix of musty books, some type of perfume, and flowers. In his short montage she was annoyed and scared, the only real emotions he’d seen on her ever. Damn, he was going to die without ever seeing her smile.

“Riptide!” The boy called, Leo, yelled. From the corner of Percy’s eyes he could see the shorter boy shaking. He looked like how Percy’s insides felt: twisted and warped with fear. He probably would’ve melted into a puddle if he were able. xClassicx’s bar was in the dark red, grow littler every second. A curl of her cinnamon hair fell in front on her face. 

Seeing them, like that filled Percy with an obtuse feeling. Something far beyond his comprehension. It burned through his limbs, a pulsing in his mind, a sudden flush of energy that was abnormal. But his Health bar was the same. It wasn’t like someone had used a power up or spell on him. 

Whatever it was it steadied his trembling hands. Riptide glowed in the darkness, the bronze light giving Percy the courage to grin. He bounced on his feet, cocking his head to the side. 

“Well,” Percy said shocked at his own calmness. He felt like a different person. Was that strange? Is this what happens to people right before they get murdered?

“What are you waiting for?” Percy asked Kronos.

The virtual assassin moved like the shadows, very subtly but Percy didn’t miss a inch of it. The masked man turn his head to the side, “It’s customary to give my victims time to pray to their god.”

Percy snorted, “Where was that rule earlier?” 

His laugh echoed off the empty buildings. It was colder than the game generated breeze. Leo shuddered.

“Caught my bluff,” the man joked, though all the humor was lost on the other boys. Percy was moving before Kronos, although it was only by a blink of time. Percy sliced at him, catching only the wind. Kronos skidded on the pavement pulling a long silver sword from space. The blade was clean and shining but Percy barely noticed. 

Kronos brought it down on him, causing him to block. Riptide moved as an extension of his own arm. The clash sent a shower of sparks up between them. Behind the gold mask Percy could see the cold blue eyes smiling.

Kronos pushed his blade down with strength far beyond any normal human being. Percy let him slide down swords with a screech that was sure to bring the zombies running. Kronos laughed and flung his foot into Percy’s stomach.

“Riptide!” Leo screamed for him.

Percy the ground, hard. He rolled away as Kronos moved to finish the job he started hours ago. The sound of metal on asphalt was louder than anything Percy had ever heard.

He dashed back at the assassin, wielding his beloved blade like he’d been using it his entire life. The air was raucous with the sound of their weapons colliding. It seemed that every move Percy made Kronos already had known. Kronos batted of his swing and sliced the air of Percy’s shoulder faster than light. 

He’s scrambled to his feet but he wasn’t faster than Kronos. He jabbed his sword into Percy’s side, and whipped it away again before Percy could even process it. Another slash flicking across Percy’s cheek and another down his other arm. Percy stumbled back, writhing in pain.

“Shame.” Kronos hissed at him, “I here thought that maybe there was someone here who might at least get me to work up a sweat.”

 

Suddenly Percy realized exactly why he was in the game. Why it was Kronos and not some other player. 

_ “But be warned: he is the best of the best.” _

The masked man twirled around Percy like he was part of the night shadows. His grinning mask reflected the moonlight with a merciless glare. Percy struggled just to keep him in sight. His movements were unreadable. Percy felt him grab a fistful of his cloak and before he could do anything, the assassin had dragged his blade across the fabric. 

Just like that. 

Cold air flooded over Percy and he nearly fell over.

“No more of that troubling healing now.” Kronos laughed. He held the sliced blue fabric in his hand like a trophy. Percy realized just how stupid of a person he’d been. 

Thinking he could take on this…

This...

Monster. This Titan of a man. Percy had no chance. His only ace in the hole was just obliterated. Kronos was playing cat and mouse with him. He wanted to see Percy fall and beg for his life.

Percy wanted to fall and beg for his life.

Kronos slammed his foot into Percy’s chest knocking the wind out of his lungs. The other player stomped on his wrist and kicked Riptide out of his grip, without slowing in the least. 

“Come on,” Kronos said wickedly, “Beg for me to spare your life.”

The monster pinning him down laughed. Percy could see multiple cameras lingering around them, drawn to his blood like sharks in the water. Kronos pressed his silver blade into Percy’s neck, slightly, slowly. 

“Beg, little Riptide!” He giggled.

Percy gulped for air. His green eyes locked on to the closet hovering sphere. His face was wet, but he didn’t know if it was tears or sweat or his blood. It was probably a mix of all three. 

_ “I swear on my sword, I’ll do whatever it takes to make it back to you.” _

_ “I’ll be back soon, Tyson.” _

_ “Don’t cry, okay?” _

Back a while ago, before Gabe, before the money problems, Percy remembered when his mother was trying to become an author. She’d research while Percy watched VCR tapes and played with his stuffed animals. Percy remembered in vibrant detail about her explaining story writing to him. It never really grasped it until that moment, for some odd reason.

In story writing, everything had a reason. Every conversation, every action, every event happened for a reason: to move the plot along. His mother would just about drive herself crazy trying to move the plot along because she always wanted the readers to know the characters like she did. 

It seemed so silly now, tracing it back. 

Every conversation ( _ “Hey, name’s Grover! Wanna come over and play my Olympus Virtual Reality Game?” _ ), Every action ( _ “Sorry, I’m a Solo Player. I don’t join guilds.” _ ) _ ,  _ Every event ( _ “Welcome to the Age of Heroes tournament!” _ ), just to move the plot along. 

Kronos leaned forward in anticipation. “Don’t worry, Percy, after this I’ll make sure to pay baby brother and mommy a visit, too!”

Percy’s vision turned to Kronos completely, “Over my dead body!”

“That’s the idea, Jackson.”

“Fuck You!” 

If everything was leading to Percy’s death, well, he can’t say that he regretted his last words. 

Kronos drew back his sword and with a motion much slower than before he took his time slicing Percy’s neck.

Ah, there are those flashes of his life again. His sword and his usernames and -Chasing- appearing with a dagger in hand.

“Get Away From Him!” The hallucination yelled. 

Kronos was slammed to the side and Percy inhaled for the first time. He wasn’t sure where she had came from but just looking at her relieved Percy’s mental health a little. She wore her hair up in a ponytail but her curls were as obvious as ever. Her tunic was ripped and her armour from before was gone. That didn’t stop her from being as terrifying as Kronos was. She looked downright murderous.

“How dare you!” She snapped at Percy, yanking him up.

“ _ Me _ ?” Percy asked incredulously. His hand varied between holding his side and his neck both of which were gushing blood the way his nose oughta be after seeing -Chasing- with such a ripped top. 

“Yes you!” She snarled, “I thought you were dead!”

“What are you my mother?!” Percy snarled right back, before remembering that she was probably challenging his real mother’s emotions right now. He hastily scooped up his sword the tight grip giving him a slight reassurance.

“You are so fucking lucky!” -Chasing- snapped, “If I hadn’t been here than Kronos would have another kill already!” 

“Wow, Thanks!” Percy wheezed, blood dripping from his lips for a reason he didn’t understand, “Is that all I am to you? Another kill mark for that guy?”

She looked back at Kronos but he was still on the ground. His hand was covering his face his gold mask laying a couple feet from him. Percy’s heart jumped into his throat.

The face of a killer.

Even with his black glove covering the left half of his face, Percy knew he was never going to be able to sleep without seeing him cackling in his nightmares. His eyes were blue as icy water, a long scar running down his right cheek, from his eye to the curve of his mouth. His smile was worse than the mask. Percy could see was eagerness in his teeth. 

Annabeth froze where she was supporting Riptide. Percy could feel her every limb suddenly waver. 

“-Chasing-?” He whispered, “-Chasing-!”

But she wasn’t hearing him. 

Kronos stood up slowly. Seconds ticked by, and Percy found himself struggling to breathe. Kronos removed his hand revealing a large welt where he hit the ground after -Chasing-’s attack. Blood trialed down his face to the drop off of his chin. His blonde hair was matted with a swirl of scarlet.

His health bar had gone down 5%

“You couldn’t just stay out of it, could you, Annie?” Kronos asked in a harsh whisper. 

“Who…?” She asked in a raspy voice.

Kronos leapt at them brandishing his sword with a malicious grip. -Chasing- wasn’t moving. Percy himself could move. 

“Goddamnit!” A voice yelled, “What is wrong with all of you people?!” 

A flash of purple exploded in the air and for a second Percy thought that he was going to officially die from inhale an excessive amount of lavender perfume. That stuff was nasty. 

“Sure, fine, Let’s all fucking risk our lives just standing around because the  _ Goddamn Motherfucking Assassin _ looks creepy as Hell!” Hawtstufz9 shouted at the top of his lungs. “You people are crazy!”

Percy gaped at the sight before him. Leo was standing there, wearing a toolbelt that Percy was sure he didn’t have before. One hand was holding open his menu with that hacking code he was working on, the other held a vial with drops of a purple liquid on it. His side was still red with dried blood from the attack earlier. xClassicx was no longer draped over his shoulder.

Kronos was gone, leaving only a circle engraved in the weatherworn street. 

“What...how?” Percy stumbled for answers.

“Teleportation potion was in -Chasing-’s inventory.” Leo said, “I hacked it, since both of you seemed to be determined to die at his hand! It won’t take him long to find us again so I suggest we run. Very fast. Very Far.”

“What about xClassicx?” Percy said wincing as -Chasing- readjusted his weight on her shoulder. She “accidentally” nudged his bleeding side.

“Uh, the Angel chick took her,” he shrugged, looking down for the moment, “She was almost gone...-AngelQueen- said she could take her a couple blocks away so we wouldn’t get bitten.” 

The silence was stifling. When Leo spoke again it was like he was trying to reassure himself that it was the right course of action. 

“It’s for the best.” He whispered, “I mean the only cure for Zombification is Ambrosia so--”

Percy flung off of Annabeth’s side and grabbed Leo’s shoulders. “Say that again!”

“It’s for the best?” Leo cried, “Ow man! You’re hurting me!”

“Why the Hell didn’t you say Ambrosia cured Zombification  _ earlier _ ?!” Percy yelled, “I have some in my inventory!”

“What?” -Chasing- asked.

“We’ve got to stop her,” Percy stumbled off Leo. “I can save xClassicx!”

“Did you just miss the fact that Kronos is going to find us all again in like seven minutes? Dude these potions only teleport like four miles!” 

-Chasing- swiped the empty vial from him, “Gimme that! Don’t go breaking into my inventory!”

“I just saved your life!” Leo grumbled. 

Percy ignored them both and glanced at his steadily dropping health meter. He looked at the end of the road and started hobbling as fast as he could. This pain was nothing, he told himself. Gabe had given him worse. 

“Riptide!” -Chasing- yelled after him, “You imbecile, get back here!” Percy could hear her running after him but he kept going.

Leo’s shoulders dropped and he looked at the virtually sky. “It’s like he  _ wants _ to die,” He muttered then ran after the other two’s glowing player stats.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy is dumb and everyone finds out.

 

When Percy woke up he was face to face with dead body. Needless to say he panicked.

“Shit!” he yelled scrambling backwards. His head slammed on something hard and his vision blurred out with pain. He cursed himself and whatever gods were out there profusely. 

“I think he’s awake.” He faintly heard Leo say.

A hand rested on Percy’s shoulder and he fought the urge to lash out. He blinked away the spotting dots that had been playing on his line of sight to -Chasing- towering over him, her captivating grey eyes looking a mix of fury and relief. She wore it very well.

“You idiotic little bastard!” She slapped him upside the head right where he’d just hit his head. “How fucking dare you!”

“What the Hell!” Percy tried to shield himself to little extent, she knocked through his arms roughly, probably costing him half a dozen health point. “-Chasing- Chill!”

She kicked him in the side, “Don’t tell me to chill! You’re so fucking lucky! You’ve got no common sense, no regard for your own health, and you’re so stupid I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long! You were this close to dying!” Percy assumed she held out her finger an inch or two apart to emphasis her statement but he was too busy trying to protect himself that he wasn’t sure. “We should’ve let you just die right there on the bloody pavement! Gods know it would’ve been easier than hauling your ass back to this building!”

“Ow! I’m, sorry! Geez!” Percy cried out as she slammed his head again. “I’m sorry!”

For a second she stopped. Percy dared look up from behind the coverage of his forearms. Her expression bordered on something alien to him. Her eyes seemingly redder than before, she bit down hard on her inside cheek and then finally let out a shaky breath. 

She went to punch his arm again, which he blocked barely. “You’re an idiot.” She said finally and then she turned away, “Don’t do that again.” Then she was gone, slamming a door behind her, hard enough to rattle the framework.

Percy remained frozen for a second longer in pure shock. He had had his run with insensible things in the past hours, hacker groups, zombies, and assassins just to name a few, but he was at his limit when it came to girls. Especially if it was a girl like -Chasing-. 

Percy gingerly looked over to where the body had been-- the one that had startled him awake. It was a girl, so much like the first zombie it gave him the creeps. She was pale skinned with fair black hair. Beside her sleeping form was her stats and it only took a minute for him to recognize -AngelQueen-. 

He rubbed his arms glancing at his own health bar that was somehow in the 90s again.

Leo let out a noncommittal whistle. He was sitting on a mini kitchen counter, drinking from a bottle that looked suspiciously like alcohol. His eyes were trained on the white mess of code in front of him. His health was at 100%.

“What happened?” Percy asked getting up slowly, and watching the door in case -Chasing- came back full force.

“You practically dropped dead in the middle of the street. -Chasing- and I carried your body here. It is astonishing how many curses she knows. Especially when she broke out the Greek-”

Percy cut him off, “xClassicx?”

Leo blinked actually looking up from his screen, “Downstairs. She was sobbing earlier, man, took an hour just to calm her down.”

Percy breathed a sigh of relief. She was alive. She was okay. She was not a zombie. 

Leo chuckled, “Man, you're just for all the girls today, aren't you?”

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing,” he took another drink and he offered the tall bottle to Percy. He declined. The last thing he needed was his mother finding out that on top of entering a murder game and nearly getting himself killed, he was drinking alcohol. Leo turned back to his work.

“I had to hack your account to get the Ambrosia. But turns out, -AngelQueen- had run into Hannibal in the streets. He had his own thing of Ambrosia. Also there were zombies. But hey, we survived. The six of us are in the top floor of the penthouse hotel at the edge of town. No sign of Kronos anywhere.” Leo said. 

Percy shivered at the sound of the assassin’s name. The chills reminded him that he was now more vulnerable than ever. His cloak, which had saved his life, was now a useless token of his first defeat at the hands of an impenetrable figure of death. He had been so close to death,and it scared Percy that it no longer freaked him out. He looked at his hands finding that they weren’t even shaking. Was it the game or had he gotten over the fact he was so close to losing everything?

Leo pretended not to notice the other boys discomfort. “We used your Ambrosia to heal up. Hope you don't mind, but I was borderline fifteen percent and by the time we found this place, even -Chasing- was at fifty.”

Percy raised an eyebrow, “My one piece cured all of us?”

The other boy nodded, “even a little bit can replenish fifty percent health.”

“We took shifts making sure that Kronos isn’t going to pop in and kill us all. Gods know that if he did, everyone would be damned to Hell.” Leo finished his explanation.

“You don’t think having us together is a good idea?” 

He gave a wry, almost bitter grin, “You were unconscious, -AngelQueen- was asleep on her feet, xClassicx was still sobbing violently, -Chasing- was pacing a rut in this virtual floor, heck, even I haven’t slept in like almost twenty-four hours. If I were Kronos I would attack now, and wipe the floor with all of you before you could even raise that sword of yours.”

Percy swallowed hard letting the other boy continued with whatever he had been doing. He tried to imagine what it was like. They must have carried him through over half the city, constantly trying to be aware of where the assassin was. His body didn’t even feel any more battered than it had before. It didn’t seem right. Suddenly Percy felt guilty for leaving them to drag his useless ass around. They should have just left him.

He wondered if Grover had been watching, hands cupping in front of his face and the bags of exhaustion under his eyes dancing in the light from his computer. Percy didn’t want to think about it, but he couldn’t just not. He had seen his best friend so many times sitting at his desk, caught in the light of his computer, grinning, laughing, applauding him to the means he needed. He had stayed up trying to warn Percy of the dangers of entering the AOH tournament. 

Percy swiped the bottle next to Hawtstufz9 and took a nice long swig. He nearly coughed it back up, choking on the surprisingly realistic taste. The small portion that actually went down his throat burned. 

Leo watched him with an amused look, “First taste of alcohol?”

Percy wiped his mouth, “And most likely last.” He placed the bottle back next to Leo and finished his gagging. “Ugh, Mom’s going to kill me. You know if Kronos doesn’t kill us first.”

Leo snorted and tapped something on his screen. He looked a bit more distracted than usual, or maybe he was just feeling the effect of an all nighter. Adrenalin had to be wearing off for all of them now. Glancing at his own stats he found that it was a little past noon. How ironic. 

They had officially survived the first day, by sheer force of will. Percy couldn’t help but feel an immense sadness, in his gut. He knew that at least one person had not survived the night, and the longer he thought about it, he got the sneaking suspicion it was his fault, whoever it had been.

“How did you not know ambrosia cures zombification?” 

Percy looked up from his quiet remorse, to see Leo staring at him with a guarded look. “I just don't play zombie games,” Percy shrugged.

“No it's more than that! Ambrosia is a universal medicine! It cures everything! You can't have played this game and not known that.” Leo rubbed his forehead. For a second it looked like he added fifty years. Lines of worry and exhaustion started on his face and his shoulders slumped forward, “That begs the question, what avatar are you on?”

Percy felt his face heat up, “Look I don’t-”

“Riptide please,” Leo closed his menu and got off the counter. His eyes were a bit wild and he was practically begging for the answer. Percy took a step back.

“Leo-”

“How long have you been playing?”

Percy didn’t answer right away. His hands were sweating, though he wasn’t sure why. “I-I-” He stuttered, “It’s been a seven months, okay? I’m not-”

“SEVEN MONTHS?” Leo repeated. He cursed in Spanish, and flipped the nearby table. It lost seventeen percent health. “Are you fucking kidding me?” Percy wasn’t sure if he was crying or laughing or what emotion he was displaying. He took another couple steps back nearly bumping into -AngelQueen-. The olive skinned girl still looked groggy from sleep and as lost as Percy felt.

“What is going on?” A voice asked as three more figures came into the room. -Chasing- had her arms crossed, xClassicx had her sword in her hand, but she looked too drained to actually fight, despite having full health. Hannibal Percy vaguely recognized the tall pale boy with distant Chinese features. 

Leo ignored them griping on in rapid fire Spanish, and clutching his hands into fists. Percy had taken two years of Spanish in school, but he could only pick out every twentieth word or so, and they were the words that had gotten him detention multiple times. 

“I think he’s lost it.” Hannibal said.

“Shut up!” Leo sneered at him, surprisingly hostile, “Fucking amateurs!”

“Excuse you, at least I can hold a dagger!” Percy retaliated.

“Yeah I’ve noticed. You went head-to-head with a motherfucking assassin and are still alive!” Leo cursed again. And once again Percy was confused as to what he was upset about.

“What are you guys talking about?” -Chasing- demanded again. She seemed more edgy since their encounter with Kronos, not that Percy could blame her. He doubted there was a single player among them who wasn’t envisioning their own deaths at his hands. Percy even more so when Kronos mentioned Tyson.

Leo sighed harshly, out of breath. His entire body moved with his breathing. He unclenched his fists and rapidly tapped them on the counter seeming to think of things a million miles away. 

“Riptide is an amaeture player.” He said finally calmer, “He’s only been playing for seven months.”

Percy felt all their eyes on him suddenly. He felt defensive. Where was he going with this?

“That means he’s never played Valiant Hero mode.” Hawtstufz9 explained.

“No way!” Hannibal said, “You’re joking!”

“I saw you fight--” xClassicx added.

“What’s Valiant Hero Mode?” Percy asked, at a lost.

“A few years back, the Gods of Olympus wanted to reward players who had been playing for a longer time. It was like a sign of commitment to the system. So all the gods, all of them I mean, decided that they would create a new mode that players could switch into. It’s normally after like two years that it shows up as an unlocked achievement.” -Chasing- said, “Valiant Hero mode changed how the game was played entirely, Riptide. How could you not know?”

“I don’t own a gaming system!” Percy defended, “I borrow my friends, okay! Before seven months ago I had never even played a virtual reality demonstration!”

Leo banged his head on the counter.

“I don’t understand still!” Percy said, feeling both helpless and embarrassed, “Why is this such a big deal?”

“Valiant Hero mode allows the Player to have superpowers.” -AngelQueen- supplied, “Like an actual superhero. The powers are random, but once you get one that’s the one you have for the rest of you time as a player. You can do amazing damage with your powers, like truely awesome stuff. I can create ruptures in the ground and my brother can raise the dead to do his bidding.”

“But it also makes you a walking target for game generated foes.” Hannibal supplied, “The more control you have, the more dangerous you are. And it also weakens your health defense points. An attack that normally would’ve only knocked you down four points might take you down fifteen. Hence,  _ Valiant Hero _ .”

Percy gave them all a blank look. “Alright. That changes things... how?”

xClassicx gave him a small smile of pure sympathy. “People who play Valiant Hero mode tend to be the best of the best. Like just short of the Gods of Olympus best. You’ve got to be the only one here who hasn’t unlocked Valiant Hero.” She actually laughed, “Oh my gods, You’re so amazing without powers, it never occurred to me that you might never have even used them…”

Leo snorted, “It took me three years to hone my skill, Fire. I was just going to barbeque that clearing when the game first started. It was going to be seconds, and hilarious! I turned off my Valiant Hero mode after Kronos first attacked, trying to save my health bar. And according to the light on our team bond, Piper, er-- Charm4u turned hers off too.” 

“So you guys think in a year or two I’m going to be someone really powerful?” Percy said, “Great, really, I’m flattered. But I might not be living in a few more hours to this helps none.”

“Wouldn’t,” -Chasing- corrected, suddenly.

“Huh?”

“It wouldn’t help.” She repeated, “That is if we didn’t have our own hacker right here in the game to turn yours on.” She looked at the smaller boy, “You can do that right?”

Leo already had his menu open, “I’m offended you had to ask.”

-AngelQueen- clapped her hands together, “We can use him as a secret weapon!” 

“It’s going to take a lot more than a fancy upgrade to beat this guy.” Percy put in, “Like seriously. He’s already nearly killed me twice.  _ Twice  _ in the past 24 hours guys.”

“Well, the first time you were talking.” Hannibal said, then he frowned, “By the way, how’d you survive that one?”

Percy shrugged wishing he had the answer. “Someone dumped me in a river and it activated my healer's cloak.”

“Which, Kronos cut to pieces.” -Chasing- put in, “So we can’t expect that to save you again, Seaweed Brain.”

Percy didn’t rise to the insult. Her words got him thinking suddenly, “Wait, what?”

“Kronos cut up your cloak. You were there.” She said.

Percy blinked, “How did he even know about that though? You didn’t even know. No one should have known.”

He could see the gears turning in her head suddenly. Her grey eyes thinking dark thoughts. Percy’s hand went to Riptide for a sense of security. The answer seemed to dawn on all of them at the same time, but no one wanted to say it.

Hannibal whispered,“Cameras.”

“The Titan hackers must be watching us, everyone!” -AngelQueen- said distraught, “They could be reported to Kronos exactly where we all are right now! Nico!” She let out a fearful cry for her brother opening the map in front of them all. They all watched for the orange lights glowing in the city and all over the board. The six of them were depicted on the edge of town. Percy watched the lights that were moving without breathing. Was that one Kronos or was it Iam_Superman? There was no way to tell and it made Percy want to throw up all the more.

“Fourteen” -Chasing- whispered, answering the question no one had asked. Percy counted and recounted and recounted again, but she was right. There were only fourteen blimps on the map.

“Someone else died.” Hannibal said. -AngelQueen- whispered a prayer in something that sounded Italian. 

With a dry mouth Percy asked, “who are they?”

“Stargirl365.” -AngelQueen- said, with red eyes, “I got the notification last night around 7:45. We got split up after the first attack and she yelled for us to stay when Scipio said scatter and I ran blindly after -Chasing-...oh gods, she’s really dead.” She cupped a hand over her mouth, “I got my teammate killed. I should’ve stayed!”

“No!” -Chasing- countered, “It’s not your fault. After Riptide was stabbed, no offense,” She shrugged at Percy, who waved it off, “Kronos was trying to kill everyone. No one in that clearing had a chance against him, not even Stargirl365. I saw her run off as well.”

Percy rubbed his forehead. “She was the one, wasn’t she? She must have guessed on my cloak and tried to revive me in the river.” Percy could picture it clearly in his head. The tanned girl with the volcanic eyes heaving his body after her, in a rush and then tossing him in the river. Kronos must have chased after her and then….

“She should’ve let me die.” Percy whispered.

-Chasing- batted his head, “Stop saying stupid things, will you? It’s annoying!” She puffed up a bit like she was drawing on every bit of her courage that she had. “Now, Hawtstufz9, can you do anything about those cameras?”

He looked at her like she had grown two heads, “I can, but it would be nearly impossible for me to do anything but that. Once that program runs, if I close my menu, it will shut off again. Knowing the Titan Hackers like I do, They’ll have someone working on it the second they see it and when it gets closed off I’ll be shut out from the code permanently.”

“Is that a no?”

“What do you think?” He asked, “I can’t unlock Riptide’s Valiant Hero Mode and run that code both at once.”

“Unlock then run?” -AngelQueen- suggested.

“Then the Titan’s will know exactly what’s coming for them with his powers.” Leo said blandly, “Which defeats the purpose of unlocking it.”

“Can you teach me? I’ll use it on mine.” Hannibal offered, to with the elfish hacker laughed.

“I don’t think anyone in the game can do this. The menu would create a huge block in your vision. You get distracted for even a second and you're dead.”

“What if it was someone outside the game?” Percy asked.

“Outside?” Leo thought about it, “Maybe. But it can’t be just anyone. If the wrong guy does it, it could be done wrong, or worse, the guy could be a Titan and then we’d be screwed over for the rest of our miserable short lives.”

Percy swiped open his menu, “Don’t worry. I know just the guy.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy asks his friends for help. Then everyone throws out some famous last words to be remembered by when their plans backfire in their faces.

Percy skimmed through the pages and pages of blogs, in clear frustration. It had been a couple minutes since Leo had gotten their connection to work again, but Percy already felt like he was losing an absurd amount of time. -Chasing- was leaning against the counter, just opposite of Leo, who had gotten back up on the counter to sit. His tired eyes swimming over lines of white code. xClassicx and Hannibal were playing with a card deck that the taller boy had acquired during his adventure in the Trailer yard.

“There are snakes there,” he had said when -Chasing had inquired about the other region, “Lots of snakes.” He shuddered, “And they spit acid and they are really fast.” 

Leo had looked concerned, glancing at Charm4u’s icon in his menu. Though he didn’t say anything, Percy was sure the elfish kid was insanely worried for his famous friend. But on the other hand, Percy also expected that Piper Mclean had a couple tricks up her sleeve.

-AngelQueen- chewing on her thumbnail, looking anxious. She had no way of knowing if the other deceased player was her brother or someone else. The options were limited, seeing as six of them were residing here like a huge beacon of “KILL US PLEASE”. Percy feel a stab of empathy. If Tyson had been in this he would be only slight more crazy about finding him.

“So this contact of yours…?” -Chasing- said finally, “Does he have a name?”

Percy slid the page again searching for Grover’s blog name. He was mentally cursing himself. What type of friend was he that he didn’t know this off the top of his head? He’d tried everything to narrow the search, but any connection to his name was leading straight to an avalanche of memes and status reports and just stories of him. Dear gods he even had a fucking fan club. Betting polls were apparently through the roof for both him and Iam_superman. 

“Grover,” Percy said, answering her question.  _ It had something to do with frying pans right? _

“And you're sure we can trust him?” 

Percy's hands hovered mid air as he registered her words. Despite his frustration, their situation, and the general fact that his face was all over the web, Percy allowed a slim smile. “I would assume so.”

“Forgive me if I'm not overly reassured by that statement.” -Chasing- huffed. Hannibal glanced up at her statement, shifting slightly. 

“Well I figured if he was part of some terrorist group trying to kill all of us, he could just turn around and plunge a knife into my chest.” Percy shrugged, like it was no big deal. But he really wouldn't have been surprised if the Olympus Gaming system emergency notification popped up as fiery hot pain in his chest dismissed him from the world permanently.

-Chasing- didn't reply verbally or with one of those huffs she was so good at.

“How do you know he's at your house?” xClassicx asked innocently. She placed down a card on the pile resting between her and Hannibal. “One Queen.” 

Percy read through the next page of usernames. “I'm at his house so I think he would still be there.”

Leo looked up suddenly interested in their conversation. “Were you using his avatar?”

“No?” Percy responded, “Why?”

“No reason.” Leo took another swig of his alcohol. An obnoxious alarm blared out from his menu screen and a flashing red message appeared in front of him. “You're drunk!” Leo told the notification as he dismissed it with a scowl.

“Great,” Hannibal muttered, though Percy was sure he did not intend for anyone else to hear. xClassicx stiffled a giggle. The taller boy looked at the girl in surprise, his cheeks reddening.

“You'll let us know if you find anything right, Riptide?” -AngelQueen- asked anxiously hugging herself. Her dark eyes looked at him pleadingly.

Percy was unsure how to respond. Once again he was reminded how much he liked being anti-social. Oh what he wouldn't give to be sitting in the school cafeteria, ignored by all except Grover. What would he not give to be one of these stupid outsiders who were watching them instead of playing.

Percy's fingers froze. “Wait repeat that,” he commanded.

She looked startled but complied, “I was making sure you would share when you find anything.”

Percy laughed, much to his own surprise. “Oh duh!” he exclaimed suddenly. 

“What?” -Chasing- asked eagerly.

“It's not about frying pans.” Percy said fully aware that she had no clue what he meant by that. “It's _ finding _ Pan.” the sudden jostle of memory sent a flood of relief and triumph coursing his veins. Percy tapped viciously on the keyword fixing his mistake. When his search came back, Grover’s icon (a “Save the Trees” sign) was the top result. 

Percy glanced at Leo and pressed the “communicate” button.

The screen appeared to the right of his menu, the blue color feeling oddly familiar. Percy rubbed his knuckles, a bout of unease suddenly coming over him. Both xClassicx and Hannibal placed down their cards and scrambled over to the counter. 

-Chasing- elbowed Percy in the side, “Frying Pan?” She asked as the screen loaded. Percy could only shrug. She huffed, “Idiot.”

They held their breath as the screen finally displayed the backwards video of the well known room. The camera was tilted slightly, per usual. Grover was constantly moving the position, but none of it ever seemed to straighten the hub. Grover was sitting at his desk, exactly how Percy expected to find him. He didn’t see the video message at first allowing Percy four seconds to analyse his friend.

Before the AOH tournament start yesterday, Grover looked like he hadn’t slept in a couple days. Now he looked like he hadn’t had a wink of sleep in years. Grover’s hair stuck up in awkward random places, and shone from lack of a proper shower. He was still wearing the same outfit from before. The bags under his eyes were so deep it seemed like he wasn’t even the same person. 

“Grover?” Percy ventured.

Grover’s head snapped over so fast he might have given himself whiplash. His brown eyes lit up at the sight of his friend. “Oh my god Pe--”

“SON OF A BITCH!” 

Before Percy could think of another thing to say, Grover was gone. Something hit the camera and the vision shook violently. There was a series of yells, and flashes of red and orange. When the screen refocused, a figure stood in place of Grover, and it made Percy’s blood run cold.

“YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT!” Rachel Dare screamed at the video feed of him, “YOU’RE AN INSUFFERABLE SON OF A BITCH. WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? Oh look at me! I’m Percy Jackson! I’m so cool! Let’s jump into a murder game despite obvious warnings from my best friend and against permission from my lovely, caring mother! It’ll be loads of fucking FUN!”

Percy took a step back, realizing he was cornered by the counter behind him. Rachel jabbed a finger at him, glaring enough for Percy to want to just close down the screen and then kill himself with Riptide, “If you get out this game alive, Jackson, I swear to all the nonexistent gods that I will bury you alive with my own two hands!”

-Chasing- looked her over, before turning back to Percy, “is this...your girlfriend?”

Percy was about to answer but Rachel was faster. “So what if I am?” she raged, “What are you going to do about it?!”

“Guys guys!” Percy intervened before -Chasing- could draw her dagger and slice their communication efforts in half. “She’s not my girlfriend!”  Too late he realized that maybe that was a bad way to phrase that. Leo hit him on the back of the head, eyeing him to a look that read what-a-dumbass!

“I’ll be your girlfriend if I want to be your girlfriend, Jackson!” Rachel snapped, “Gods know you couldn’t get another one even if you tried!”

“You tell him!” Leo encouraged, which only soured her expression. Percy wanted to melt into a puddle of his own code.

“We’re wasting time.” Hannibal, savior of Percy’s life, spoke up, “And as honestly entertaining as it is to hear about Riptide’s lovelife, I really don’t want this to be the last conversation I hear.”

Leo grinned and punched him in the shoulder as a way to show his agreement. The taller boy looked less than thrilled to have him anywhere near him. 

“Dare!” a voice moaned from the background, “You mind?”

Rachel looked back over her shoulder seemingly still irritated. A flash of something like guilt, crossed her face and she shifted enough for Percy to see Grover sprawled on the ground. His eyes caught sight of the familiar room behind them. A breath hissed through his teeth, and he felt -Chasing- straighten. 

There was something strange about seeing himself in third person like this that made Percy tense up. There was his body, laying on Grover’s bed, like it was completely normal. His clothes were a bit ragged, and Percy was suddenly very self conscious. He didn't even seem remotely presentable. Percy couldn't help but think about just how easily it would be for some trained hitman to storm the apartment and end his life, in the virtual reality and in the real world. 

“Is that a Billy Joel record collection?” xClassicx asked, eyes wide and wonder in her voice that grounded Percy from his uncomfortable thoughts.

Grover and Rachel followed her line of sight, “Uh, yeah. You a fan?”

The mousy girl blushed, “Not really. Mom played him around the house back in Orleans. It was...nice.” she bowed her head looking embarrassed.

Percy took her sudden tension as a reason to start talking. Time was short after all. “Look Grover, we need your help. The cameras-”

“--are directly linked to all devices linked to the internet.” Grover cut in. He pulled himself back into his chair blocking the view of Percy's corpse. “They've been live broadcasting since yesterday. The Titans are probably seeing every second of this conversation right now. By the way, you've got a camera right outside the window to your left.”

Percy's breath caught and he froze up. The entire group swirled towards the direction he indicated. Before Percy could even think about moving, Hannibal was jumping out the window. Percy was glad he wasn’t the only one surprised. 

“What the Shit!” Leo yelled. 

Grover whistled looking at something from another screen. “That was...wow…” 

xClassicx ran to the window after him, but before she could do anything there was a loud crash and a bird screech. Rachel scowled at whatever Grover was watching, but Percy didn’t missed the flicker of interest in her eyes. He knew she hated these games, everything about them. So if whatever Hannibal had done was enough to impress her...well Percy was doubly sure he didn’t want to be on the tall Asian’s bad side.

xClassicx let out a gasp as a hunting Hawk burst into the room through the shattered glass Hannibal had made. It shook its feathers and looked at them as if to say “don’t mind me! I’m just a bird!” Even -Chasing- was gaping at it. Then all at once the feathers shook and started to shrink, the beak flattened out and became a mouth, and the cold eyes gained a humour glow as they turned brown.

Hannibal stood up from the ground and stretched. 

“Dude,” Leo said, “That was single most weirdest thing I have ever seen. And I’ve been in the New York Subway.”

Percy turned back to Grover, “How long has that camera been there? Are we screwed?”

“You’re playing Virtual Reality Hunger Games, Perseus. You’re screwed no matter what you do.” Rachel griped.

“About two minutes.” Grover answered, “Just long enough for everyone to know who you are and who I am, and that you're single and that you’ve never kissed a girl before.”

“You’ve never kissed a girl?” -Chasing- repeated looking at Percy.

The raven haired boy massaged his temples, “I died already didn’t I? This is my eternal punishment: Stuck in this video game, letting you kill my reputation on screen for everyone to know…”

“Uh, can we get back to the semi outline of a plan now?” -AngelQueen- suggested quietly.

Leo took that as his cue to get to work, grilling poor Grover over his computer’s working. Percy leaned back against the counter again. He was feeling more ill than before, and it must have shown becuase -Chasing- gave him a meager nudge.

“You okay?” She asked softly. Her grey eyes were cold and calculating but Percy found warmth in the idea that she was calculating about him. Even though he wasn’t good at math he was suddenly very aware that there were only about five inches between the two of them. Percy wondered if she knew.

“I’m fine.” He whispered back.

A faint smile graced her lips, but Percy wasn’t sure why. He wasn’t complaining; as soon as she did smile, Percy would have had to be blind to not realize how pretty she was. -Chasing- was good looking before, but now...Percy wouldn’t have been surprised if she was a goddess in disguise. 

“So….Perseus?”

He frowned, “Just Percy.”

“Oh? Any reason for such a...Greek name?”

Percy twiddled his thumbs watching Hannibal shuffled his deck of cards and perform a card trick for xClassicx and -AngelQueen-. “My mom liked it.”

“Fitting,” The blonde haired girl said. When Percy looked at her she explained, “He was the only Greek Hero to get a happy ending.”

Percy wanted to say that his namesake had nothing to do with the here and now. In fact he was sure that if the hero Perseus was faced the scenario Percy was dealing with the poor guy would have a heart attack. Computers? Fake universes? The only thing that probably wouldn’t freak the guy out would probably be the superpowers. Weren’t gods always blessing people with weird shit like that in the stories?

“My name’s Annabeth.” -Chasing- said. 

“Can I call you Annie? Or Beth?”

“Only if you want to see how many limbs I can cut off before you die of blood loss.”

For some reason Percy laughed. It was the first one he’d had since the start of this madness that wasn’t tainted with fear or bitterness. Percy felt as if he had lifted a weight off his chest. 

“Oh yes, laugh it up, Jackson!” Grover called to him, “Just remember you owe be a new computer when this is over! The amount of stuff I’m deleting for your sorry ass!”

“Wait if you get a new computer, than he owes me at least ten boxes of Goldfish!” Rachel huffed, “Your brother destroyed my supply!”

Grover paused slightly in his deleting of things off screen to look back at them. Percy swallowed hard. Even Rachel seemed to somber as the weight of her own words settled on them. She tugged a red curl, “Look, Percy they’re in my apartment. I can go get them--”

“No!” Percy blurted out, “Don’t!”

“Perce, think about this.” Grover warned him. His dark eyes filled with enough worry and concern for the both of them and then some.

“I...I can’t,” Percy told them, “I can’t. Don’t tell her.”

-Chasing-, --no Annabeth-- sent him a sideways look. It seemed that all five of the other players were looking at him now. Grover sighed and turned back to the screen, “You are a piece of work.”

“You should talk to them.” Leo said voice lower than their chances of survival. “You don't know if you will get to later.”

“I would give anything to- to…” Annabeth bit her lip. Percy felt sick but he stood by his words. Yes, it could very well be the last time he saw his mother, it could be the last time he saw Tyson. At the same time it could be the last time he heard Grover’s voice or got chewed out by Rachel. It could be the last time for a lot of things.

Percy was an introvert. Grover was a friend by pure chance, and Percy treasured their friendship like gold. Percy couldn’t trust anyone else with this task,  _ their lives _ , like he could trust Grover. But it was now that Percy remembered he’d lasted sixteen years without the other boy. Without  _ anyone  _ for that matter.

Percy knew himself better than he knew just about anything. And he knew if he saw his mother or his little baby brother….

...Percy knew he would break.

He knew he would not be able to stand against the tears, and the focus and the pain. He wouldn’t be able to say enough “I’m sorry”-s, enough “I was trying to help”-s, enough…. Nothing would be enough. It was his mother. It was Tyson.

It was fucking Gabe, who hit his brother and his mother and him. 

It was Percy.

And it was his chance to be the greatest Solo Player to ever live, or die trying.

“Grover are you recording this message?” Percy asked, staring at the wall beyond the screen.

“Should I be?”

Rachel slapped the back on his head, “yes! So they can...you know...we can post it on your blog when they’re done. That way at least their families will  _ know _ .”

Grover froze his fingers hovering over his mouse clicker. He seemed to age forty years in the time it took him to turn and look directly at the screen again. His face was pale and his eyes so tired. “I can do that.” 

The players looked at each other. A sudden tension drawing tight along them. Grover must have took that as a sign to start recording because He clicked and a blinking red light appeared in the corner of the screen.

“I-I don’t have anyone.” -AngelQueen- admitted, “It’s just me and my brother. I can’t lose him. I joined with the Huntresses because I knew it was all girls-- at least in character-- and he was so clingy, so pestering… But I just want to have him back again.”

She slid away, fast before anyone could say anything else. Percy watched her settle on the couch, but she looked more distraught than before.

xClassicx rubbed her arm, “This isn’t really my place either. There’s no one waiting at home for me. I’ve been borrowing the Public Library’s headset for years.”

Hannibal took her hand and gave it a squeeze and a small sad smile. “I wish I could say much else, but I know my grandmother would be more irritated at me than upset if I wasted this time to tell her anything other than “I tried, grandmother.” She always said I wouldn’t amount to anything if I never tried.” He looked at the screen as if he could see her hovering right behind Rachel and Grover. “Don’t forget to take your meds, Grandmother.”

-Chasing- for all her glory did not cry. Though the wobble in her voice made it sound it took all her willpower not to. “Bobby, Mathew, sorry I wasn’t-- aren’t-- a better big sister. I wanted to be there for you guys, but the house was too small. Dad, Helen...I’m sorry I ran off. I know you were trying. And...and I’m so sorry.” She took a deep breath to steady her voice. Rachel tugged on off her red curls again seemingly feeling like she was listening to something sacred. Percy wanted to look away but he couldn’t. “If I survive...maybe I can drop by? You know just for a day or two?”

Annabeth looked away sharply and the last two boys took that as a hint that she was finished. Percy resisted the urge to give her hand a squeeze like Hannibal had done for xClassicx. For some reason Percy felt that she would cut his arm off before being grateful for his strength.

“You or me first?” Leo asked waving the empty Alcohol bottle between them.

“You.”

Leo rubbed his chin, in an iconic and rather ironic way. “Okay.” He slid off the counter and rubbed his hands together like he was preparing a big speech. “This one goes out to all the lovely, attractive yet conveniently single girls I never had the pleasure of meeting. I apologise for getting myself into this mess. When I get out maybe we can change your single statuses on Facebook to “In a relationship”?” 

Despite the fact that Annabeth kicked him in the back of the knee so hard he fell over, Leo didn’t seemed deterred. “Hey Grover, You’ve been reading the news! How many faithful followers do I have? I’m thinking not more than Riptide, but I’ve got to have at least two times Hannibal, am I right?”

Grover rolled his eyes, “I’m not answering that.”

“Next time I’m stabbing you.” The taller asian boy warned Hawtstufz9.  Leo just grinned and gave a thumbs up to Percy. 

“Hey Rachel, can you do me a favor?” Percy asked. The redhead nodded. “Can you get a report on where everyone is right now? If we can get enough of us together, then we should be able to form some plan to stop Kronos.”

Rachel glanced at Grover, “It’s streaming on Channel Seven. Give me a moment.” She hurried from the room.

Grover finished deleting everything he needed to on his computer and sighed, “Alright. I can receive the data now. It’s going to take a minute or two to download.”

“That’s okay.” Leo said, “The Titans can’t crack my code in an hour, much less a minute. Just know that it will start running the second it downloads completely. Once you have it up, do not, under any circumstance, close the computer. This is our one chance to get on even ground with these guys. The virus will rewrite the cameras into looking anywhere but where a player is. Even Kronos will be invisible to the cameras.”

“Fair enough.” Grover said. “We’ll all just be here. Worrying.”

“Alright, Percy, here you are.” Rachel said coming back into the room, she had scribbled down names and places on a napkin from Pizza Hut. She read off the locations of the other AOH players and Percy filed them mentally. He glanced at Annabeth and saw her already working on a plan. Relief flooded his veins.

He turned back to the screen, “How much time do I have left?” He asked.

Grover considered it, “A minute. No more.”

Percy took a deep breath, “Gabe Ugliano is an abusive jackass. He fucking hits my mom, he fucking hit me, but the reason I joined was because he went after my brother.  _ No one _ touches my brother. Not Gabe. Not even Kronos. I’ll be there to stop them. 

“To my mom, wash my mouth with soap as many times as you need. Tell me you bumped into tables or tripped and fell. I know it’s a fucking lie. You’re the most graceful person I’ve ever met. If you wouldn’t leave before I die, then at least leave after okay?” 

Percy was well aware of the gaping faces of the other around him, but for once he didn’t care. They already knew his name. Everyone did. What else could he throw up in the air? He was an open book. Rachel had a hand over her mouth. And Grover placed his head on the table.

“Tyson, I’m going to make it back to you. Somehow. I’ve got this chance now. But even then you stay strong and you don’t let anyone tell you you can’t play a sport or read because of that eye, alright?

“Rachel, Thank you. I know I shouldn’t be asking this, but if you could check on them once in awhile, please do? At this rate I’m never going to be able to repay you.”

She bit her hand, shaking her head, “Percy don’t say that. Please!”

“And Grover…” The brunette pulled his head up off the table, eyes red. He was crying, Percy noticed. But the raven haired boy still went for a smile. A cheap, cheesy one, “G-man!”

“Ten seconds.” Leo whispered.

“I say this because you’re the bestest friend I ever had.” Percy ran a hand through his hair, “Juniper, Grover has been in love with you since freshman year, but he doesn’t have the guts to tell you himself. Kiss the idiot before he goes and gets it in his head that you're too good for his underwhelming charm.”

“ _ Percy Jackson you son of a Bit-- _ ”

The screen crackled and shook. Then all at once it went out. And Percy realised just how loudly his heart was thumping. He brought his shaking hands up to his face and wiped the tears away. With a sniffle he swallowed and turned back to his group, the group that he was sure was going to defeat Kronos one way or another.

“Let’s do this.”


	12. Chapter 12

“Okay, what now?” xClassicx asked, tugging one of her cinnamon curls. 

“Wait, dude, you were-” Leo tried to interject. 

“I said what’s next?” xClassicx glared at Leo. For someone so small and mousy looking, she seemed to look threatening when she wanted to be.

Percy was thankful that she was the one to speak up first. Percy hadn’t had much of an interaction with her before, but she seemed like she understood how much Percy really did not want to talk about his home life. Especially with the stunt he just pulled. He felt like he had taken Riptide to his own stomach and carved out his intestines. 

“We unlock Perc--sorry,  _ Riptide’s _ \-- Valiant Hero mode.” Annabeth said. She was watching Percy with a critical eye, her face blank. It was the same face he had seem many times before on her fun avatar screenshots leading up to her enrolment in the Age of Heroes tournament. 

It was her analyzing face. 

“Hawtstufz9, get on that.” Annabeth commanded with a flick of her wrist. “The rest of us are going to plan how we are going to take down Kronos.”

“First off, it’s Leo Valdez. When I made that username I didn’t expect people to be actually calling me it!” the scrawny Spanish boy rolled his eyes, “Secondly, don’t tell me what to do. I’m not good with authority. People who tell me what to do often end up in...unsavory places.” 

She grabbed his collar and yanked him off his feet. Leo yelped, thrashing wildly, but Annabeth seemed to know what she was doing. Percy was glad he wasn’t in Leo’s shoes. He did not want to be on the other side of that glare. 

“Listen hacker boy--”

“Why does everyone say that like it’s a bad thing!” Leo complained, “Hacking is not a bad thing! If I wasn’t here Valiant Hero would even be an option--”

“Shut. Up.” Annabeth growled, “As of right now we are on the clock. The Titans will have every coder and hacker and tech genius at their disposal working on breaking your code. You can not be so stupid as to think that they will not break it eventually. So every second counts. Kronos no longer has outside help, which gives us the upper hand. But it’s not enough.

“We have to gather the rest of the players. AOH was for the biggest and the baddest players. We are the best of the best. All of us.” Her eyes flickered up to Percy just long enough for him to feel insulted over her insistence. “We might not know everything about each other, but as of right now we are a team, and we need to act like it. Some of us have people to go back for, Valdez.”

He flinched so violently that Annabeth had to drop him. His face screw up in a way that suggested he wanted to make a snide remark but this time he refrained. He looked at her, took a calming breath, and nodded. “Whatever.”

Hannibal wrung his hands as if his knuckles were aching. Percy tapped the counter with his palm. Annabeth watched them all, carefully picking out her words before she said them.

“Besides us there are six other players.” She said, gliding across the floor. She pulled up her map tapping her chin as she looked at the orange markers. She pointed at two from in the Trailer yard, “These are Iam_superman and Charm4u according to Riptide’s friend.” She twisted the map, finding another two in a clearing near the start, “BlackMagic and Scipio.” The graveyard, Annabeth took the time to glance at -AngelQueen-, “~GhostKing~ and El3ctric” she turned it one last time to two markers moving at a fast pace, through the forest “Imthebest.”

She didn’t have to say who the other marker was. The unsaid name rested in the air like a deadly toxin, making it hard for anyone to breath. 

Percy felt cold. He stared at the marker, all too aware that less than twentyfour hours ago Imthebest had been part of a team, a good team. The second player to die had been his brother, his teammate, they had been together when it had happened. Percy thought of the feeling of Kronos’s blade in his chest the sticky feeling of blood and the hard pressure to find air, to think clearly, not to die….

“We have to help him.” Hannibal said voicing Percy’s thoughts. He looking around to find everyone staring at the tall Asian, “We have to...he’ll die otherwise!”

“And get ourselves killed in the process?” Leo asked, tearing his eyes from the marker as if he could remind himself it was not a person, just a light, and that he held no obligations to anyone.

“We aren’t strong enough to stop Kronos.” Annabeth said.

“He lost his brother.” -AngelQueen- whispered.

“There’s gotta be something!” Hannibal insisted, “We can’t just sit here and let him die! He’s one of us!”

XClassicx put a hand on his shoulder as if to calm him down.

He looked at her in disbelief, “Oh, not you, too!”

She bit her lip, “We can’t help him. I wish we could...but…” she hung her head. “We can avenge him. We will avenge him.”

Percy could see the battle lines draw in the wooden floor. Hannibal shrugged off her arm looking livid and disgusted at the same time. He shook his head and grabbed his bow and quiver from its place by the sofa. 

“Where are you going?” -Chasing- demanded although they already knew the answer.

“Our strength is in numbers you said it yourself!” Hannibal said coldly, “You want to test your theory, come on, let’s start by saving another player. Instead of leaving him at the mercy of that fucking murderer!”

“I don’t have time to argue with you over the idiocy of this.” Annabeth said, “He cannot be saved. You are not going to save him.” She turned to Leo, “Where’s my code? The other three groups should be easier to get to--”

Hannibal snarled something in fractured Chinese, but Percy had no problem picking it out as an insult. He found comfort in the hilt of his sword.

“Leo,” he said, “How far away can I be for you to unlock my Valiant Hero power?”

The other boy blinked, “I, uh, I’m pretty sure I can unlock it from anywhere on the board. I don’t like where this is going.”

Percy put on a lopsided grin, but waved off his concern. He shrugged towards Hannibal and nodded happily to the door, “Okay, let’s go.”

“Have you lost your mind?” Annabeth growled. “what are you going to do when Kronos guts you like a fish?”

“I’ll improvise.” Percy told her, “don’t worry. Maybe I’ll get a cool power like teleportation!”

“Or something stupid like appearance shifting.”

Percy put all of his confidence, which granted was not a lot, into his smile. “Leo needs someone to watch his back, so you should go with him. Go find iam_superman and Charm4u. xClassicx and -AngelQueen- can go after El3ctric and ~GhostKing~. We can all meet up with Scipio and BlackMagic afterwards.”

“Oh yes and get ice cream on the way!” Leo put in with a laugh, “oh wait, you were serious.”

“This is a terrible plan.” -Chasing- said, “what if you don’t make it? Kronos kills both of you and Imthebest and guess what, I can do math!”

“I’m touched by your concerned,” Percy said, “I won’t let it happen.”

“You’re full of shit!”

“We’re on the clock.” Percy reminded her. She threw her hands up, emotions flashing in her eyes faster than Percy could name them. He motioned at Hannibal who had gone blank faced when Percy had started talking. 

“We need to make a guild.” xClassicx said suddenly.

Everyone paused, but it was -AngelQueen- who spoke first, “Why?”

The smaller girl tugged on her battle tunic biting her lip again, “We’re a team now. We owe it to each other. No one else is going to die, right? If we believe that we make the guild. If we survive this I don’t think any of us can go back to--- I don’t know! Please let’s just make a guild!”

They looked uneasily at each other. 

“I’m already in a guild, “-AngelQueen- mumbled. Annabeth and Leo and Hannibal all found some other excuse not looking into her pleading eyes. Percy wondered why she was so insistent on this. Why did she want a guild so bad? 

His own answer was on the tip of his tongue. The usual “I’m a Solo Player” spiel. The words tasted sour now, like a lie, like a dagger in his gut. The last people who had asked him to join their guild had been the team >Stolls<. One of them wasn’t alive anymore.

So instead Percy ran a hand through his black hair, “We need to get moving.” 

Her face fell, and she seemed to suddenly find the floor very interesting. -Chasing- glowered at his back, but Percy only gave another shrug and a half wave.

“Don’t die!” Leo called after him, with a voice that sounded like a joke but really wasn’t. Percy closed the door to the penthouse suit and nodded at Hannibal. The guy looked ready to say something but he closed his mouth and just nodded back.

“Do you have a plan?” Percy asked. 

“Do you?” 

Percy smiled, “Nope.” 

He headed toward the staircase down, and the other boy followed. Hannibal rotated his grip on his bow. 

“I’m Frank, by the way.” He said, “Frank Zhang. I...Thank you for coming with me. I know we’ll probably both be killed.”

Percy grimaced at the words, “Let’s hope Leo’s as good as he advertises. As of now that’s at least one up we have on Kronos.”

Hannibal,  _ Frank _ , was quiet for a moment. Then he said, rather sheepishly, “Have you ever read Caesar’s  _ De Bello Galico _ ?”

Percy shook his head, wincing at every loud sound his shoes made on the stair case. Kronos might be chasing after Imthebest, but Percy still felt that he was the initial prey. Any loud sound could draw the assassin right to him for an early round three. 

Frank hummed to himself, “My mom use to read it to me. I know Latin almost better than english. The book is all of Caesar’s reports to the senate while he was waging war. In one part, he is attacking Britain with his troops all in boats. The story is that his soldiers would have to jump from the boats, into deep water, carrying all of their things, not knowing the layout of the land they were coming too, and the enemy was attacking them. The Roman Soldiers would get nervous and refuse to go.”

Frank’s voice lowered and Percy found himself drawn into the story, even though he probably should have been making some form of plan. They rounded the last stairwell ignoring a giant discoloration on the wall.

“So this guy in the Roman legion who carries the eagle, a golden signal on a pole which is the most valuable thing in the army, sees all these guys hesitating. He knows that he’s basically unarmed and that he’s carrying this heavy pole, and he looks at all these guys who are his friends.

“He tells them to jump or the eagle will belong to the enemy.” Frank is smiling now, as if proud, “Then he pitches himself over the edge of the boat and starts charging right at the enemy. It’s so badass that the guys can’t help but follow and then all the other legions who see this also charge in. It’s been my favorite story for a long time.” He jumped the last two steps as if reenacting the scene with his bow at the Eagle. 

Percy tilted his head, suddenly understanding. “You were hoping to be the eagle carrier guy back there.”

Frank shrugged. Then he looked up at Percy something in his eyes that the former couldn’t quite place. “I know I don’t know you very well.” He said pausing again to think on his words, “Okay, I really don’t know you at all. But you are...um, pretty cool. I mean, like you’re the best of us here and you…I… you stood up to -Chasing- and I, uh, thank you.”

He look off at one of them buildings nearby. “Just….Thank you.”

Percy didn’t know what  to respond. Somehow “You’re Welcome” didn’t seem correct. He could already hear the moans and groans of Zombies. Percy brought Riptide out into the shining light of the setting sun. Soon their first full twenty four hours would be up. Percy tried not to think about how two of them never made it past fourteen hours in. If he thought hard enough, he thought he could almost feel the weight of Grover’s headset, the curse and the freedom it had provided, resting around his temples.

Frank rolled his shoulders back. His gaze was locked on ahead of them where a horde of Zombies was amassing in their terrified undead way. They still has time to dash back inside and board up the doors and save themselves but Percy was sure that neither of them even considered it. He wondered what would have happened if he had.

Percy wondered what would have happened if he had never gone with Frank, if he had told the other man to get back inside and forget about golden eagles. He wondered what would have happened if he had told -Chasing- her plan was the best, or agreed to make a guild back there with xClassicx. 

Percy leapt forward and sliced through a zombie with all the maliciousness he wanted to attack Kronos with. His blade cut like hot metal through butter, sending monsters exploding into gold code to be revived somewhere else at another time. Frank plunged arrows into the zombies distracting them long enough for Percy to cut them apart.  _ They weren’t real people, they weren’t real people.  _ The words rang in Percy’s head but the awful sound of skin snapping and bones chafing on one another and the splatters of some liquid or other kept poking holes in the idea. 

Percy spun around to sink his blade again, only to find that the zombies were already gold code. They flickered and vanished as if they had never existed at all. He wiped a splotch of blood off his cheek looking at Hannibal. 

“Wasn’t me.” The bigger boy said. 

Percy glanced up at the building they had come out of. There was movement in one of the windows, a wave of a white curtain. Percy snorted. 

“Come on, let’s go.” He told Frank, “Kronos isn’t going to kill himself.”

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy and Frank go up against Kronos again, except that neither of them are as prepared as they should have been.

 

As Percy and Frank crept along the road, they didn’t speak. It was almost comforting, knowing that Frank with his Hawk Eyes was watching his back. Percy had never had that before, being a solo player and all. The closest thing he’d ever had to someone watching his back like this was Grover highlighting his battles after he had already logged out.

The thought of Grover brought a twist to his stomach. That same mostly crippled teenager was the only thing keeping all of them alive right now. The time clock on Percy’s menu bar reminded him that their conversation had only been a couple minutes prior. Grover was probably still sitting his his swivel chair cursing Percy. 

He wondered if he had made a good choice forbidding himself to see his family. To see his mom or Tyson. He knew if he saw them he wouldn’t have been able to stomach what was coming. 

_ “Don’t worry, Percy, after this I’ll make sure to pay baby brother and mommy a visit, too!” _

Percy hadn’t told anyone what Kronos had said to him in their last fight. It unnerved him that the monster would know him, Percy Jackson, the loser, loner of the school and the least likely candidate for The Age of Heroes Tournament. Kronos knew his name, his family, he knew how to push Percy’s buttons, and all of his weaknesses in his sword fighting. 

Percy doubted that he didn’t have the same extensive knowledge on every player. He remembered how Annabeth had frozen at the sight of him, the broken grin of his golden mask, and the long scar that ran the length of his cheek. It wasn’t surprise that had cemented her feet to the ground. It was fear. Annabeth had known him.

He snuck a glance back at the tall Asian behind him. Did Kronos have something on him? What about Leo? What chance did they have if Kronos knew all of them?

Percy clenched his fist around the handle of his sword. “So,” He tried to sound nonchalant, “How am I going to know when my Valiant Hero will unlock?” 

Hannibal pursed his lips and kicked at a virtual rock with his brown hiking boot. “I guess you’ll just know.”

“I’ll just know.” Percy echoed. Even for him, it sounded too far fetched. His whole plan had sounded better back in the comfort of the penthouse hideout. He really hoped his power was something useful. If any of them were going to survive, it depended on Percy figuring out his power before Kronos found it's weakness.

No pressure or anything.

There was a buzzing sound up ahead and Percy motioned for Frank to hold back. They skirted the area diving back into a thicket of trees in case it was some glitch of a monster. Frank pulled up his map just so they could both see it wasn’t another player. Percy swallowed hard and snuck forward on the balls of his feet.

Around the clearing was the source of the buzzing. It almost made Percy laugh. 

“Well at least we know Leo’s code is working.” Percy called back to his partner. Frank peeked out from the wood. 

A floating camera, which was a bane of their existence at one point was faced directly towards a rock in the middle of the off path clearing. Percy couldn’t help but snicker at the million of real time views it was broadcasting to the real world. RockTV just got it’s first big break.

Percy nudged Hannibal and they both continued on in their cautious trip.

“Something’s been bothering me.” Frank said suddenly. They both scanned the area nervously as if Imthebest or Kronos was going to burst out at them with weapons drawn. “We were all in that penthouse. Kronos knew he had you on the line--no offense, man you were done for-- Anyone with a map knew where we were. If he knew even one of us was on the ropes, why did he go for team >Stolls<? It just doesn’t make sense.”

Percy shrugged. “Was it suppose to make sense?” He asked, “Hackers took over our game. This is a virtual reality that might kill us.”

Frank frowned, “Yeah…” He said distantly, “But still.”

The more Percy thought about it, the more an obvious answer came to mind. Percy felt guilty just thinking about it, but it was the only logical reasoning he could make out. Since Kronos knew all of them, their strengths and weaknesses, home life and online life, probably even their hopes and dreams, he knew who was the strongest players.

He also must have known who was the easiest to pick off. One by one.

Percy tugged at the tattered collar of his cape. Did Kronos pick out Stargirl365 like that? Or had her trying to save him been enough to single her out? Percy was living because she had saved him by dumping him in a river that carried him to safety. He was living off Stargirl365’s blood. Why him? Why hadn’t she left him to die like everyone else? What did she see in him that was worth giving her life for?

All he had done was proclaim his Solo Player motto. He stood on a rock, he talked reason to his peers, he got himself stabbed. Percy Jackson should already be dead. 

“Do you think we should have started a guild, Riptide?” Frank asked again breaking the silence and steering Percy’s thoughts from the dark road they were heading down.

“You can call me Percy, you know.” He said musing over the question, “I...I’ve never been a guild before.”

“Never?” Frank looked surprised. He strummed the string of his bow absently, “Really?”

“I’ve only been playing for seven months.” Percy sighed, “And since I used my only friends headset, there was never really anyone to play with, any guild to join. Why does everyone want to join a guild anyway? It’s just a friend group thing right?”

Frank glanced up at the sky watching a couple of virtual birds for signs of an attack. Percy was secretly glad they were doing this excursion in the daytime. If it had been night the generated monsters would have already torn them apart.

“Guilds are like teams. Yeah most of them are just friend groups, but they can consist of anyone the master allows in. Take the Ares Guild, my guild--”

“Wait you belong to the Ares Guild?” Percy snorted. “The one with all the gung-ho players and bad attitudes?” He remembered xxRedClarissexx, who he had to beat in the last match before being accepted into the AOH rankings. The Avatar had been ugly and the personality even worse, and Percy just couldn’t see meek Frank Zhang being part of that.

“I didn’t-- _ don’t _ \-- fit in.” Frank admitted, “But being part of a guild means you always have someone you can turn to if you wanna go on a dangerous quest or need help with a story plot. Some guilds form to join tournaments for medals or cash rewards or fancy weapon and armour upgrades.”

Percy shrugged, “I just do better by myself.”

Frank was quiet for a moment as they walked. His features seemed to hollow in the sun. “Some guilds give upgrades.” He mentioned, “Like I know if the Ares guild gets six or more players on one quest, our attack power goes up five percent.”

They were only a little bit away from where they had last seen Imthebest fleeing. Percy paused to pull out his map checking the markers. There were still fourteen left, so no one had died. It looked like -Chasing- had taken to his plan too, because the penthouse had been abandoned and groups of twos were taking over the board. 

According to the map, Imthebest would be crashing their mini party in only a few minutes. Kronos’s marker wasn’t far behind him.

“Do you want to join a guild?” Frank asked quietly his eyes trained on the gray marker moving towards their stationary markers.

Percy’s mouth twitched, “Dunno. I’m not good with authority figures. Just asked my math teacher.”

“You could always be the master of the guild. Start your own.”

Percy actually snorted, “Oh yeah? And who would join?”

Hannibal tore his eyes from the markers and readjusted his grip on his bow. He spun until he was pointed to where Imthebest would be coming and slung out an arrow from his quiver in a smooth motion. “I would,” He said.

Percy almost snorted. He twisted his bronze sword in his hand twice readjusting his grip. “I’ll think about it.” He concluded and then, before his nerves could catch up with the rest of him, Riptide charged forward as if he had had a plan the entire time.

Imthebest looked like he had walked through hell and it didn't get much better. He was bleeding from just about everywhere, his stat bar in a red so dull it almost looked black. Cuts crisscrossed his arms and torso, as if he had been dodging a knife but mere speed and not doing it well. The Sandy haired boy came crashing into the ground right at Percy’s feet.

“Son of a Mother!” He sobbed. For the moment, he didn’t even seem to see Percy at all. He scrambled up to his feet spraying blood across the the both of them, and the code felt as wet as spit. Imthebest focused on him, took a second too long to recognize Percy’s form and the floating stats beside him. “I can’t! He’s right--”

“Move!” Frank shouted from behind them. He let loose an arrow that slung so close to Percy’s ear he heard it singing. It cut fire, and zipped across the clearing to an unknown destination.

“Can you stand?” Percy asked him urgently.

“It’s Kronos!” Imthebest gasped, “He’s behind--”

“Can you stand,” Percy scraped his memory for the name; he knew he heard the boys call to each other, “Connor?”

The boy looked at him, squinting through a gush of blood. “Travis.” He gulped in a fresh breath that sounded like it hurt more than anything else, “Connor...he’s...I’m Travis.” He grabbed Percy’s shoulder to hoist himself up, “I can stand.” He blinked twice, “Wait a second are you dea--”

“Percy!” Frank hollered, “Here he comes!”

The black haired boy looked at Travis and nodded, “Go, we’ll handle this.”

“How?” Imthebest choked.

Percy didn’t mean to but he smiled, “Magic?” He swung his sword in a circle and loosened his stance, before placing himself in between Travis and the oncoming threat.

Kronos appeared, walking casually forward without a sign of a scuffle on him. Even the 5% damage that Annabeth had given him earlier was gone. His boots snapped the fallen twigs and Percy had a hard time not picturing them as bones. He had discarded the mask that him and Annabeth had worked together to break, but what he saw still didn’t make him feel any better.

It wasn’t a monster under the mask, and Percy thought maybe it would have made him feel better if there had been some grotesque  _ thing  _ that he could blame from the blood and the nightmares he would be having after all of this.

Kronos let his blue eyes shine with anticipation of killing them all. His blond hair glistened in the artificial sunlight, making him look like an angel discarded from Heaven for the attempted murder of God himself.

Blood was all over his clothes.

“Well isn’t this curious,” He said, a smug smile slipping through his shining teeth. “You haven’t learned a single thing have you, Riptide?”

“My teachers say the same thing.” Percy gritted his teeth, “Did yours ever tell you that killing people was wrong?”

“Only the boring ones.” 

Of course. Percy’s hands were clammy around his sword handle. He watched Kronos’s body language, trying to predict where the man would move from. Two days ago Percy wouldn’t have even considered this skill a necessity, but now he knew it would be the only difference between all three of them dying.

It would determine if he saw Annabeth again, or if he let her be hurt again and again, hunted until the Titan hackers got bored of her.

All at once Percy realized he couldn’t let anyone else die. The sudden resolve was a hard rock in his sanity, an anchor in the chaos, a calm that flooded his veins. He imagined Tyson in his arms, talking about his day with Rachel, and his mother in the kitchen making dinner with a sub conscious smile adorning her face with happiness the way she deserved.

Percy charged Kronos.

His movements were fluid like a river, with its currents only slashed by the brunt force of Kronos’s sword. The other man locked their swords, laughing soundlessly. Percy pulled back skipping the swing of Krono’s leg by a mere centimeter. Percy flung his sword in another attack, a diagonal strike that was parried with spite. Kronos towered over him, his strength still higher than Percy’s, at least until the arrow exploded in his back.

Kronos went stumbling back a few steps, allowing Percy to recover his balance. Kronos simply gritted his teeth and cracked his neck. His health bar was missing 1% damage for all the good it did them.

“Exploding arrows,” the blond man spit, “I always thought they were pointless.” His eyes flicked to where Frank stood ready with another two arrows to be released, “Wait your turn, Zhang.”

Frank fired again, but his aim was off. The tree beyond both Percy and Kronos splittered into enough code to give Percy a headache. Travis gasped a short breath from where he was still holding his balance on a tree trunk. His hand prints were displayed as red tattoos on the bark. Kronos smirked. His hand reached out pulling a dagger from his inventory. The blade was still marked with old blood. Percy found himself not wanting to know whose it was. 

“Fine then,” The assassin said, “Both of you come at me. I’ll kill you both right here.”

Percy dove forward just as Frank reloaded his bow. Percy slashed at Kronos but he was faster, flipping out of the way, and still retaining enough balance to use his dagger to knock away Frank’s arrow. Kronos whipped back catching Percy in his cheek with a shallow cut that stung of humiliation more than pain.

Riptide sung a metallic song along the blade of Kronos’s sword. He lashed out with his elbow trying to throw the assassin off balance, but he only managed to stumble and fall. Sticks felt like needles in his skin, the leaves like a slick paper mat to keep him from getting up.

Frank yelled out dropping his bow into inventory. Percy watched with wide eyes as his enough body blotted and morphed, code weaving his muscles and clothes until something else entire had been created from the mass. A bear charged at Kronos with a roar that shook the whole forest.

Kronos spun to face it with a distasteful frown, but Frank was now two hundred pound of meat in a fur coat. He threw Kronos to the ground, leaping on him in an animalist way. The assassin’s sword clattered away, but he drove his dagger right into Frank’s heavy shoulder. 

“Frank!” Percy bellowed.

The bear let loose a bunch of growls that might have made any mother bears nearby wash his mouth with bear soap. Frank lurched back, and Kronos landed a powerful kick to the other boys face. Hannibal fell back, his body changing back into a human; he hit the ground in a pool of blood on the bad shoulder. Percy rushed forward again, his shoes sliding on the fallen leaves and twigs. Kronos caught his sword in his open palm. 

“Don’t you see, Riptide?” Kronos asked, holding all of Percy’s weight with his single hand. Blood dripped off his wrist, dropping to the ground in one single drop. “You can’t defeat me. No matter how many allies you gather. No matter what guild you join. You can’t beat me in a swordfight.”

“I’ll find a way!” Percy swore.

“You’re pathetic.”

“No,” Percy said, “I’m desperate.” He lifted his foot and slammed his heel right into Kronos’s sternum.

Kronos cursed retreating a few steps to catch his breath. Percy leapt for the opportunity to rush him, sloppily bringing his sword across the other man’s torso. Before it got anywhere near him it ricocheted off a golden glow of a wall that hadn’t been there before.

The energy crackled in the air. Percy had just enough time to suck in a breath before all of his force rebounded back at him. It came like a punch to his gut, powerful enough to send him flying backwards. He hit something, the crash sounded like a car wreck but his body kept moving. Bruises exploded across the small of his back and he hit the ground with all the delicacy of a bull in a china shop. He was pretty sure his health bar was broken. There was no way one attack backfiring like that could have placed him back at ten percent health. The world spun. 

“Well it looks like stealing that Complete-Counter Activation Spell of Zoe’s came in handy.” Kronos’s voice was thicker than tar. He appeared as a silhouette in Percy’s vision, blocking out the sun dotting through the orange branches. “Well I guess that’s Stargirl365 to you, isn’t it, Percy?” He toed over Percy to nudge his sword out of his reach.

“You know she died because of you?” He said, “I was going to after -AngelQueen- first, her being the most interest statistic-wise. But when Zoe stopped to pick up your lifeless body...well I just couldn’t help myself.

“And you...you weren’t my real first pick. An ameture player in this game? Please! Olympus has truly fallen. But I must say I’ve never seen another player so suicidal.” Kronos smiled with all his teeth, and drove his heel right into Percy’s stomach. Percy wretched his own breath out from his lungs, his vision flashing black and white before refocusing. His fingers grappled for his sword, but his limbs weren’t cooperating. “You’ve been an interesting toy, Jackson.”

“Riptide!” Frank hollered threw his agony. He was struggling to sit up, his arm limp and scarlet painting his left side.

“But next time leave the big boy games to the adults.” Kronos swung his sword down.

Two things happened at once.

First: There was a heavy thump and something dark and heavy bounced off Kronos’s shoulder blade. He froze in his motion, blade still a foot away from decapitating Percy. Kronos blinked as if he had imagined it, then another black blob hit the ground just inches from Percy’s hand.

“Hey! You jackass!” Travis panted, “Are you done... with your fucking…. lectures?” His hand curled around another rock from where he knelt on the ground, his other arm encases his stomach as if it was the only thing keeping his intestines on the inside. He lobbed the rock at Kronos but it missed by a foot. “I mean...the least you...could do...is...finish me... first.” 

To be honest, Travis didn’t look like he needed any help dying at all. His dull blue eyes glared defiantly at the assassin, but every breath looking like it was rubbing lemon juice in an open cut. Blood rained off the wound on his forehead and smeared across most of his open skin. He threw another rock at Kronos and it hit his shin and fell into the mess of leaves.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Kronos asked. For that moment he sounded a lot like a normal teenager with normal teenage problems. 

The second thing that happened was Percy felt every molecule in the air suddenly go still. His brain froze in all the buzzing thoughts and fears and dreams until only one thing was clear. A single line of sounds he didn’t recognize but were humming in his brain.

_ Wishhishh-Wishhishh-Wishhishh _

Then, like the flicking of a switch, he knew exactly what it was.

When he closed his eyes, just for the second, a millisecond really, he could feel it. Under his fingertips, under his body, in his chest, in his arms. It was warm and cold, strange but familiar. Something he had never felt before but something he couldn’t picture never having. 

It felt like power.

Riptide opened his eyes and everything exploded. The ground betrayed itself, launching into the air with no warning. It was powerful, latched to Percy’s emotions, his resolve, his calm and his promises-- all of them. The ground was nothing compared to the water that surged to the sky white hot and cold as ice. It moved like a sea monster swallowing the assassin in it’s jaws. Percy imagined the assassin yelling a curse or two but all he heard was the sweet relief of every drop of water. The spray rained down on the three of them; Percy felt it soothe his muscles until all traces of the Counter Attack spell had faded in his memory. 

“Sweet Mercy,” Frank breathed, his eyes wide as the jet of water still going up and up and up.

Percy watched, maybe some part of him hoped that Kronos would never come back down. Eventually the water emptied itself, then it was just the three of them scattered among the leaves and trees staring at nothing.

“Hey Frank,” Percy called to him.

“Yeah?”

“Did you know there was an underground river under us?”

Frank brought his non injured arm up to his face to cover a wet laugh, “No!”

Percy himself hiccuped a laugh, “Yeah, me neither.”

“That was….” Travis shook his head, “Yeah...I’ve never...seen anything...like that.” He frowned, “Is he dead?”

Percy stared at the hole made by the makeshift geyser. “I hope.”

“He’s not,” Frank grunted as he got up. He staggered for a moment hold his arm tenderly. His health bar sang 72% but he swiped it to the side for his map. Fourteen blimps remained on it, only one was now out of place; Kronos had crash landed in one of the farther corners in the Native American TeePee camps. It wasn’t as far as it could be, but for the moment Percy bet he had enough damage to slow him down and there was a good distance between them and him.

“Well,” Percy said, “I think I’ve figure out what my Valiant Hero Power is.” He looked at his hands then rolled over to find his sword. His control over water was dulled now. The sounds gone and the water dried from his skin in clothes made it look like he had never been wet at all. 

“Your health bar,” Travis pointed out.

Percy was at full health again. He stared at it until a message popped up.

**Congratulations Player Riptide!**

**For your excellent work in kickbutt-ery over the past two years, you have been gifted with a blessing from the Gods of Olympus! We wish you luck on further excursions and remind you to play fairly and cooperatively! Powers are used better in guilds! And Remember to have fun!**

**~The Gods of Olympus**

“That’s…” Frank stared at the note over Percy’s shoulder, “Not the same note I got.” He pointed at the second to last line, “That’s different.”

“He’s right,” Imthebest added, then shook his head, “Wait...what’s even... going on?”

Percy and Frank shared a look. Percy minimized the note and went to help Travis up. “It’s a long story.”

“For now let’s just join up with Scipio and BlackMagic, and hope that one of them has some type of healing potion.” Frank winced as he tried to move his arm, “We can explain on the way.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just when Percy thinks everything is going to be okay, the infighting goes to the extreme.

 

When Percy was in ninth grade his geography teacher had picked him to do a run for her. Just take a note to another class, and return back. It had sounded easy, and to be honest it was. The room had been easy to find, but the door was open and the teacher in the middle of a presentation.

When Percy walked in every head turned to look at him as if he was in the completely wrong school. Since then Percy tried not to let his teachers pick him for anything.

He found the memory was a mirror reflection to exactly what happened when he stumbled into the clearing Scipio and BlackMagic had called home base. They were the last ones to the party it seemed: -AngelQueen- and ~GhostKing~ were arguing, while iam_superman and El3ctric were back to back, arms crossed, not speaking to each other. -Chasing- was pacing while Scipio was cleaning a spear. BlackMagic was spread across a rock looking like he wanted to kill everyone himself. Charm4u and Hawtstufz9 were talking in murmurs, the latter now sporting a black eye as he worked on something with the code. xClassicx was standing nearby hugging herself tightly and choking back silent tears.

The second Percy lugged Travis’s mostly unconscious body into the clearing they all stopped and turned to look at the three of them.

“Sup?” He stuttered out. 

Frank appeared behind him still picking at the makeshift suture that he had made while walking earlier from a dress shirt in his clothing equip. The white fabric was still bleeding through red and Percy tried not to think about his health bar steadily going down while Percy remained in better health than he had all day.

“Hannibal!” xClassicx cried, leaping to go side, and gathering him in a hug. The big guy looked confused beyond belief, and a little in pain, but he certainly wasn’t pushing her away.

Percy helped Imthebest to the ground, where he moaned in pain and stared at the sky like he was the source of all his agonies. Annabeth rushed forward to help him, her grey eyes checking him over for injuries so fast Percy wasn’t sure it had actually happened. Her face was brushed pink from worry or agitation or just plain hatred for him. (Honestly he was surprised she hadn’t unfriended him and resulted to put him out of the game for good.)

She knelt next to the sandy haired boy, with a low grade first aid kit. Percy honestly wasn’t sure it would do anything for him, but he was all willing to try. Travis had saved his life. He watched Annabeth affirm the healing with a tap of her screen and the red pulsing health bar go up a few notches to bored line yellow. He wasn't by any means cured, but Travis managed a weak thank you in her direction.

 

“Well, finally.” Black Magic slung himself up, “I was beginning to think you really were fucking dead and they were just pulling one last fucking joke before we all fucking died.”

“Would it kill you to watch your fucking language and around the children?” El3tric snapped.

“Hypocrite,” Iam_superman coughed, and rolled his eyes. 

“You are the last person I want speaking to me.” The black haired girl scowled at him before flipping the bird.

“Good thing I don’t want to talk to you.” He replied with a poisonous snarl. He turned to face her, eyes clear and dangerous with a challenge that spoke in volumes, “Of course I never, ever wanted to talk to you!”

The clearing had gone quiet. Annabeth sucked in a sharp breath between her teeth, mumbling “Not good,  _ not good _ !”

El3ctric narrowed her eyes, “What the fuck is your problem?”

Iam_superman looked around the clearing like he was confused on who she was talking to, even though it was obvious.“Oh, I’m sorry, did you ever think in the eleven years of my life, maybe, just  _ maybe _ , I wanted to talk to you?!”

Now she looked just annoyed, “You know Mom fucking forbid--”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Iam_superman exploded, sending sparks across his body as his temper let loose. His hands made tight fists and a breeze spooked the trees around them. -AngelQueen- let out a squeal and grabbed at the nearest player, Blackmagic. “You've broken every other rule in on the world! Why am I the exception?!” 

Scipio straightened her stance, hand resting on her sword handle like she expected a fight to break out.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Jason.” Thalia shut him down with another one of her eye rolls. She swiper her menu open and dismissed him in on movement. “I don’t make exceptions for anything.”

Iam_superman let out a humorless laugh, looking at the rest of the player. Percy thought he was particularly spiteful in -AngelQueen- and ~GhostKing~’s direction. He spit his hands at the other girl as if she was some display for them to see. He gave one last smile in Percy’s direction, maybe more towards Annabeth, who looked a little disappointed in both of them.

Then he lunged at El3ctric with a fistful of electricity.

“Motherfuc--!” Leo yelled.

“Jason!” Piper covered her mouth, but she didn’t move to intervene.

Iam_superman-- Jason-- landed the first blow, which sent her sprawling to the ground. “Even now you won’t...give me...the goddamned...time of YOUR DAY!” 

El3ctric was still for a moment, her health bar simmering at the edge of green and yellow. She looked up growling at nothing, eyes full of rage and then her entire body shimmered and popped. One second she was at Jason’s feet, the next she was decking him from behind, glowing a white hot blue.

The ground between them crackled and the grass fried. Jason’s hand went to his sword, Thalia held her spear like a bo staff, daring him to come at her with just her gritted teeth and blinking health bar.

Then Scipio was between them, standing tall and obvious. Her sword was out and face impassive, as if they were children in need of supervision. She didn’t turn her back to either of them, preferring to stay on her own side, “You both need to stop. This is not the time, nor the place for your sibling altercations.”

“What the hell does altercations mean?” Travis coughed quietly.

“I think they should.” Blackmagic put in, his voice infinity loud, “After all, they’re never gonna get another chance to obliterate each other again.”

“Are you crazy?” -Chasing- yelled, “If they kill each other, they’ll  _ die _ !”

The black haired boy rolled his eyes, “So you say.”

Percy exchanged a glance with his grey eyed friend. She looked baffled, if not outright horrified. It took a minute for his words to sink in, but it was Imthebest who beat everyone to the punch. 

“I’m gonna kill him,” the boy hissed. He struggled to sit up despite his injuries, “I will fucking kill him!”

“You don’t think we actually die.” Hannibal clarified. He frowned as if the words themselves didn’t make any sense in his mouth. Percy wasn’t gonna lie: they made less sense out in the air.

“Of course not.” Blackmagic snorted, “This is a tournament displayed all over the world. Every game needs a bit of drama! The Gods pull shit like this every year.”

“I can’t tell if he’s crazy or stupid.” Leo shrugged, “Anyone else?”

“Hey, at least I didn’t hack Sanction Island and drive four people insane.” Blackmagic laughed cruelly while Leo’s face drained of color, “I’m surprised they let you near a headset again. Remind me why you aren’t locked up right now?”

Leo hands curled into fists, his lips pressed flat, and eyes averted. “Crazy. Definitely crazy.”

“You drove four people insane?” Frank spouted, “What the hell?”

Charm4u stepped in front of her partner, “What the hell did you hope to gain by bringing that up?!” She demanded of the Japanese boy, “That was years ago, and it wasn’t his fault!”

“He destroyed four people’s lives!” Scipio interjected, now not seeming to care about starting a blood war among the group. Even Annabeth looked at a lost for words at the sudden exclamation.

Percy had read about Sanction Island in the news a while back. It had been a popular Zombie Game run off a lesser quality, black market version of Olympus. The gaming system was known for it’s bugs and glitches and people went there to exploit them. It had been a joke. The exact details were classified but the media had pieced together what had happened: four middle-aged men and women were trying to glitch a zombie in the middle of a safety zone and break the story plot. At the same time, a low grade techie or hacker or someone was trying to rewrite the game. When the glitch met the new code it was sent to the trash, along with the codes for the players. The backlash fried the brains of the players.

Four people went insane, two died within the next week, another was sent to a mental institute and the last is still on life support in a complete vegetative state.

“I want you guys to wake up,” BlackMagic spun his daggers in his hands, “We weren’t picked because we were the  _ best _ . We were picked because we have so much drama it’s hilariously funny.” He motioned to El3ctric and Iam_superman, “We have two siblings that don't get along,” -AngelQueen- and ~GhostKing~ “then two siblings that pretend like they do, when they really hate each other. A girl who thinks she can solve any problem,” Annabeth bristled under his comment, “two boys who can’t function without each other,” Travis slammed his fist on the ground, while BlackMagic’s one eye focused on Percy, “Fuck it, we even have an ameture player who doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing.”

“You need to shut up now,” ~GhostKing~ spoke for the first time, “You don’t know a thing about me, and I’m gettin tired of your bullshit.” -AngelQueen- rubbed her arm, as if she was being tossed in the middle of a fight she wanted no part of.

“Oh?” He smirked, “what are you going to do about it? Fight me, brat?”

His eyes glowed darkly, “Maybe I will.” He reached for his sword, but stopped just short. He dragged his eyes from BlackMagic to his own self, a flash of confusion maybe even fear. Then the boy, the kid,  _ Nico _ crashed to the ground.

“Son of a bit--” Percy leapt towards him, but before he got more than a foot, BlackMagic spun towards him with a sharp smile, and snapped his fingers. 

It felt a lot like being thrown in a blender. Percy’s vision took a tumble and his stomach dropped out. He felt the energy escape from his limbs without his permission. His brain spun until he was Percy pulp, a Percy smoothie. His diaphragm revolted and he struggled to breathe. He could hear Annabeth yelling his name, his real one, Percy, and it sounded a lot like an angel calling him to Heaven.

His eyes focused upwards-- he was on the ground-- where his shamrock health bar displayed a purple skull over the percentage. He cursed every deity he could think of, but his mouth refused to move.

There was a sound beside him, where Annabeth hit the ground, with a heavy breath. Somewhere beyond his range of vision he could picture the rest of the player dropping to the ground like flies. Snapping echoed in the clearing strangely loud, horribly dangerous, a hidden backstabbing dagger.

“Come on, brat,” BlackMagic’s voice laughed, “tell me what you’re going to do to me!”

Percy couldn’t see what he was doing but he had heard the sound of a foot in a stomach enough to guess. He struggled to move, strained his body to breathe. He stretched his senses as far as he could but his water manipulating ability was negated by the poison BlackMagic had hit him with. He cursed himself for never having suspected it. He didn’t even remember when they had touched, when BlackMagic had had the time to set the poison in place. 

Nico let out a grunt of air, and the other boy’s awful laughter filled the time. Percy felt sweat drip down his neck when he grunted. If Kronos appeared now, they were dead. Then again with how BlackMagic was talking, they might be dead anyway; if he thought this was still just a game, then he could kill all of them and “win” it himself.

Then the entire clearing was engulfed in darkness so deep, Percy thought for a second he had closed his eyes, or maybe died. It was strangely painless so he disregarded the second option.

Then all at once the light came back, and Annabeth sucked in another breath. She was looking at him, her eyes worried, but her expression still one of horror. His stomach did a flip: she was worried for him?

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” A voice shouted, and it wasn’t BlackMagic’s. He’s was a surprised yelp then the unmistakeable sound of metal on metal. The clang that sent the entire clearing flinching.

“I have to say,” BlackMagic sneered, “you were the last one I expected to be immune to my poison.” 

“No one touches my brother.” -AngelQueen- snarled, “In a game or not!”

“Well then, bring it on, Beautiful.”

Percy wished for once that they hadn’t disabled the cameras. He hated that he couldn’t see what was going on just beyond him. He couldn’t help if he couldn’t see what was going on, not that he could do much paralyzed on the ground. His breaths were labored, and Travis seemed to have started crying with desperation. He was facing the fight. Annabeth leaned into the ground eyes closed in a prayer.

BlackMagic’s dagger scraped rock, -AngelQueen- let out a sharp hiss, one or both of them cursed. 

“Why are you doing this?” -AngelQueen- demanded, “Why did you poison them?”

“Because I want to  _ win. _ ” He scoffed, “I thought that was obvious!”

“There’s no winning this, you shit!” She snapped, “Kronos is the enemy, not us!”

He laughed again. Something hit the ground, -AngelQueen- yelled out. More grunts raised in chorus. Percy sucked in, concentrating on the skull over his health bar, wishing it away. If Leo had just been able to avoid it, he could have hacked this all away. If Percy had been smarter he would have seen this coming. What if Kronos shows up now? He prayed that they still had time. He was not going to die this way.

“You’re wrong!” BlackMagic told her, “Kronos has to play by the rules just as much as us! He has to kill five of us.” Metal clanged again, but it was followed by -AngelQueen- coughing. There was thud against the ground and a dagger hitting rock again.

“That’s a loophole. We just have to remove eleven of us from the game!” He shouted. “Then Kronos can’t win at all. Personally I’m going to leave Riptide because he’s the easiest to beat.”

“You’re talking about killing eleven of us, BlackMagic!” She hissed, “Eleven!”

“You don’t actually die.” He sounded irritated, “Aren’t you--”

_ “Stop betting our lives on that!” _ -AngelQueen- spit, “You don’t get to decide that! You don’t know if that’s true or not, you don’t know if Kronos is right around the corner! Face it, you fucktard, you don’t know anything!”

“I know one thing, Beautiful,” His voice was surprisingly calm. Percy swallowed hard, his eyes wide. Seconds felt like years all of a sudden, the tension in the air had grown suffocating.

“You’re dead.”

-AngelQueen- screamed.

Percy’s brain went to static. His internal screaming shot through the roof. His body burned, his lungs ripped and his stomach flopped. Her scream was the one he had heard all those blurry hours ago. Not Annabeth, it had been -AngelQueen- who had screamed in the city with the zombies, -AngelQueen- who had risked everything to get xClassicx far enough away that she wouldn’t hurt anyone if she succumbed to the zombie bite, -AngelQueen- who had been fighting just meters away for all their lives.

He heard her body hit the ground like his backpack sliding off his shoulder when he came home with Tyson in his hands and Gabe was out playing poker somewhere else. 

Like the laundry basket when his mother was tired from cleaning up all of Gabe’s messes. Like Grover’s excess essays papers flying off his desk to make room for Percy right next to him. 

Like his own body after he took all the hits meant for his brother and he wasn’t sure he could hide them in the morning from his mother, from his teachers who believe he was nothing more than a screw up, from world who would judge him based on his face and not on what he could do.

BlackMagic was laughing, “Only Ten left and then I get to win Fifty Million!”

-AngelQueen- gasped horrifically, and it sounded like someone drowning on dry land.

“Do I get bonus points for the killing blow?” He chuckled, “I guess we’ll see--”

“STOP!” Charm4u’s voice, shrill and hard exploded out of the silence. All at once Percy felt power flood through his veins, energy that wasn’t his and it felt strange but he drank it in. His limbs unlocked themselves and he threw himself into a sitting position just in time to see the grisly sight before him.

BlackMagic stood stock still, as if his own power had been used against him, knife still slick with red paint. -AngelQueen- was right below him, chest towards the sky, and life leaking out through her abdomen. She was wearing poison-proof wrist bands that glowed a vomit green that flickered like her lifeforce. Then Thalia leapt at the poison wielder, driving her spear through his chest, and crackling with blue lightning. She burned the ozone. Her tears so hot they evaporated off her skin.

BlackMagic dissolved into code before either of them hit the ground.

“Bianca!” Nico screamed. His lip was busted, his clothes covered in dirt, but he didn’t seem to care he threw himself down beside her, holding her wound as if he could stop the bleeding with his force of will. “No! No!”

“Ni...co…” She breathed.

“Bianca Don’t!” He begged, “Someone ambrosia! Please!” 

Piper let out a sob. xClassicx burrowed into Frank, refusing to look at the scene. Iam_superman swung himself around and slammed his fist into a rock. Scipio, who looked to be the only one struggling to move, her dizzy swaying hands held her up at an uncharacteristic loss for words.

_ “Someone!” _ ~GhostKing~ screamed, “...Save my sister.”

Leo hung his head. -Chasing- took two steps forward, but she couldn’t make herself say the words. Imthebest sat on the ground sobbing almost harder than Nico himself.

“We’re…” Frank started, but the rest got stuck in his throat.

“Please.” The boy in black cried, “please, please, pleasepleaseplease…”

“I’m...sor..rr--,” the brunette gasped body dripping down her chin, “Ni...co…”

Her body flickered, shaking like an illusion. Solid for a second, bright white for the next. Nico scream holding her tightly.

“Someone grab him!” Leo yelled, “Move him!”

Iam_superman grabbed one of his arms, being shaken off and cursed at multiple times before El3ctric was on his other side and they wrestled him away from the other player.

Percy watched in daze, a denial, as the form that was once a living breathing human, -AngelQueen- turned to code right in front of him. Then she was gone, as if she had never existed in the first place.

Nico collapsed at the sight, his knees digging into the ground. Percy’s throat was so dry he couldn’t breathe. There was a roaring in his head that he couldn’t seem to hear over, except for when Nico looked directly up at him, eyes burning with a hatred, a vengeance, with grief.

“You,” He said voice like a gravel walkway, hard, broken, with sharp edges that cut Percy to bits, “This was your idea, to bring us all together….to put her in the same space as that monster.  _ This is your fault, Riptide!” _


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone plays the Blame Game, several characters share how they got to this point, and with little time left before Kronos finds them, Percy asks the group to make a choice.

 The worst part about the younger boy accusing him, was that not even Percy could stand to his own defense. The ~GhostKing~ had lost his questing partner because of Percy, Nico had lost his sister. And it was him who said they needed to come together. It was Percy who had laid out this half-cocked idea of his without thinking it through.

Now they were down two more players, and it was Percy’s fault. They still didn’t know if Kronos had to kill them or the game or each other, they couldn’t tell what the score was: if they had any chance at winning at all.

“That isn’t fair,” Charm4u was quick to say, but the waver in her voice didn’t help her cause. Her kaleidoscope eyes settled on Percy with tears framing her face. Beside her, Leo rubbed his black eye, cursing quietly.

“We’re going to die,” xClassicx murmured, “We are all going to die.”

“That’s not going to happen!” Hannibal argued, “It’s not Percy’s fault, and we are not going to die. This is the only way we can win.”

“ _ Win?” _ Scipio repeated, “Our best shot is to survive. There’s no winning this.” She struggled to sit up, her teeth grinding against each other. “I’ve exhausted my power for now, reversing the...fucking...effect of that... _ bastard!”  _ She snarled at the virtual grass, “I’m useless!”

Jason slammed his sword into the ground. “If we don’t take a stand now than we are going to die!” He glared at everyone else, “A House divided will fall.”

“Except our house is made of flesh and blood and easily killable materials,” Leo threw in, “if we take a stand together Kronos gets to kill us all together.”

“We have to trust each other.” -Chasing- said, reasonably, logical. Percy glanced at her, but she was looking at him, grey eyes calculating.

“He let my sister die!” ~GhostKing~ shouted, drawing his sword, “I’ll kill him before I stand with him!”

“IT’S NOT HIS FAULT!”

“We are wasting time guys!” Hannibal pointed out, “Kronos is coming no matter what we do!”

“And who fault is that?”

Percy watched the group dissolved in arguing all over again. Wind tore through the trees as Iam_superman got in Hawtstufz9’s face, Charm4u wedged herself between them. Scipio and Annabeth were arguing, xClassicx was in tears with Frank beside her and ~GhostKing~ was coming right at Percy.

It was like his throat had closed up. Any and all words he could think of vanished at the sight of Nico’s sword. It was made of a black material, which Percy knew was from the Soul Reaping Quest story. It allowed the player to steal energy from their opponent when it connected. 

Percy couldn’t fight him. In his mind, all Percy could see was the look on Tyson’s face: his eyes with tears, and misery, hate. It was the expression that Percy had nightmares about seeing on his baby brother’s face: the one that said Percy hadn’t been able to protect him, that Percy had screwed up.

And Percy had screwed up bad this time.

He couldn’t draw his sword, he couldn’t protect himself. Everything that had built up to this moment had been his own fault. He had left what really mattered in the real world for a virtual reality. He had left his family, his hope.

Part of him screamed that they would be better when he was finally dead. He had told Gabe’s secret already, He had left messages for his mother and brother and given Grover and Juniper his blessing. He’d thanked Rachel.

What was left to do anyway?

Nico-- gods, could Percy even refer to the kid by his real name? Did he have the right?-- charged him with his sword. 

“I’m sorry,” Percy whispered.

The black blade swung towards him like a blur of shadow and ice.

“STOP IT!” 

Percy felt every hair on his neck stand on end. His body jolted with a sudden explosion of electricity between him and ~GhostKing~. There was a blinding blue light, and a clang of metal, and then El3ctric was there. Her spear crackled with electricity, her eyes crystal and skin sizzling.

“If you want to blame someone, blame me!” She yelled, “This is my fault!” Her voice wasn’t one of strength like she had portrayed earlier. It wasn’t the sound of smug confidence, or angry hatred.

It was one of regret.

“The whole thing is my fault!” She yelled, “Zoe’s death, Imbetter’s, -AngelQueen-, BlackMagic; it’s ALL ON ME!”

“What?” Iam_superman asked, “Thalia?”

She spun her spear in a circle, and arc of lightning trailing it as she hit Nico’s sword out of his hands sent it sprawling away. He didn’t try to regain it. He let out a fierce, gut wrenching sob. 

Thalia faced them all, “I got an email, weeks and weeks ago.” She shouted, “From Kronos!”

“What?” Percy gulped.

She didn’t bat an eye, “I know who he is--we were friends, okay! I...Good friends! We went questing together and unlocked secret rooms. I counted on him for so much.” Lightning flashed over her shoulder and between locks of her black hair as if it was trying to protect her from her own words, “The he applied for an internship at Olympus and they denied him, cruelly. The Gods said he wasn’t worth their time, he wasn’t talented or good enough and never will be. And Kronos...Luke...he got mad.

“He joined the Titans instead. He started taking jobs that were illegal and I told him I wouldn’t play if he kept it up, alright! I really thought that would make him turn back. I thought I meant something to him.” Her agitation flowed into the clearing, making even Percy’s hands restless, “He made his choice and left me behind. After that I stopped letting people in.”

“Thalia--” her brother started but she wasn’t done.

“A month ago he sent me a message asking me not to try for the prize. I thought he was just being a dick. We hadn’t talked in years and now he was telling me what to do? I told him to burn in hell.” She choked on the next words, “He sent another email...he-he said he was going to hack AOH...I didn’t believe him.” She gritted her teeth as if trying not to cry, “If I had just told someone-- If I had….So yeah it’s my fucking fault we’re in this mess.”

Annabeth rubbed her face, “Motherfucker! I knew he looked familiar!” She slammed a fist into a rock, “I used to idolize you guys. I followed his blog before it was deactivated. He gave me tips to get through the Space Revolts Quest!”

“Oh great,” Leo murmured, “we humanized the monster trying to  _ kill us _ .”

“I wouldn't use the word humanized.” Scipio muttered. She looked across the clearing at the trees, eyes wearies, and shoulders slumped. She reminded Percy of himself, on the mornings after really bad nights when he tried to work his mother's concealer over a bruise on his jaw: tired, mentally exhausted, physically strained, and wondering if it was even worth crawling out of bed. 

“I'm sorry.” He said again.

Travis gave an ugly wet cough, he e sitting up now, even if he looked like he got run over by a truck then attended his own funeral. “Dude, Riptide...do us is a favor... just shut up.”

“It's not your fault this has happened.” Charm4u added, lightly pressing a hand on Leo and Iam_Superman’s shoulders each and pushing them further away from each other, “I mean, I don't think it can be anyone's fault but the Titans.”

“Yeah, don't flatter yourself, kid,” El3ctric scoffed.

Percy frowned, all too aware that Nico wasn't meeting  _ anyone's  _ eyes. His shoulders shook with the effort just to keep himself from falling apart. “Nico…”

_ “Shut up.” _ The younger boy hissed under a curtain of sobs.

“What's done is done.” -Chasing- said, she glanced at the sky with a resigned huff, “We can't bring them back, but we  might have a chance at not joining them.”

Leo snorted, “Oh I can't wait to hear what plan this is. Does it involve you and our fearless leader Riptide finding a cave together and the rest of us guarding it while you two get it--”

“Leo do you really want to know how close the nearest body of water is?” Percy snapped, and it totally wasn't because he was thinking about caves and the things they could do in them.  _ Fuck _ he better not be having a nosebleed. This was not the time for that.

“I don’t….” Annabeth huffed, “I don't have a plan. Yet.”

“Tell me it's in the making, right?” Iam_superman rubbed his face. “I could really use a sane very solid plan in which all of us will survive and get to see real actual sunlight and not this…. _ this! _ ” He waved his arms and glared at the virtual sky like he was going to fight it.

“Agreed.” xClassicx whispered.

Annabeth pursed her lips and turned to Leo, “How much of the database do you have access to?”

“Not nearly enough.” He looked frustrated and worn: battle torn at age seventeen. Percy wondered what the newspapers will say after this whole ordeal. Will it have revamped the “video games lead to violence” tirade that had infected most of the moms who lived in their apartment building? Would his picture be the front cover of the group?

“I've been working with the auto logout code,” Leo informed the group, “but the firewall is too strong for me right now. Unless I have some clear hole I've got nothing. It's a dead end.”

“What counts as a hole?” Frank picked at the bloody fabric on in his arm. He didn't seem pleased to be talking to Leo at all, as if he could still hold the grudge of him being a hacker while they were in the middle of competing for their lives.

The short Latino boy glanced at his partner. Piper gave him a tip of her head: the only sign of a silent conversation that they were having. Percy noticed her hands had tightened to fists in firm resolve when he turned away again. 

“A hole would be when the system recognizes something is wrong but still runs itself. Like when… you pick up El3tric’s spear and put it in your armory. The spear already belongs to Ms. Tall, dark, and scary over there but when it goes in your inventory it rewrites the code.” Leo shrugged, “That example isn't powerful enough really for me to forcefully log someone out. I mean really the only way would be…” he trailed off. “Well if one of us was a fake.”

The group shared a look. “Fake?”

“Like if one of us was not the usual player of our avatars. Forget I said anything, it's stupid.” Leo waved them off but before above could move a shadow descended on him. 

Percy hadn't noticed Scipio moving but she appeared before the shorter boy with barely a sound. She looked sick as if BlackMagic’s poison had never worn off on her. With her fluttering purple cape and dark  eyes, she looked like death had possessed her to collect all their souls.

“You mean if, for example, one of the players decided to drop out of the competition because her homegrown business had an emergency and she gave her younger sister permission to play in her place?” Scipio’s voice was cool. 

Leo's was not. “Yeah, yeah that would do it,” He stared at the girl for a silent minute--Percy doubted anyone in their group wasn't staring at her-- before wetting his lips, “Are you….by any chance the younger sister in this scenario? Pleasedonthitme.”

Her eyes flashed and she pursed her lips. “Her power allowed her to share strength among the people around her, before it returns to her. I tried it, but I'm not getting any of it back. At this rate, I won't be able to stand when Kronos shows his face.”

The area was completely silent. Percy could feel the tension in the air, the sudden weight of her words as they stood their understanding but not completely recognizing what that meant. xClassicx began to fan her face, Nico punched ground, but Travis he wrenched himself to a sitting position just to gape at her.

“I can log you out.” Leo whispered, as if the words made no sense even coming from his mouth. He frowned as if doing complex math equations in his head, then rechecking his mental work seven times, “I can...I can really log you out!”

“I'm not sure I want to leave.” She responded.

“What?”

“She’s lost it!” Travis hissed, “A confusion potion or  _ something-- _ ”

“Listen-  _ Listen _ !” She growled, “It’s not fair if I survive and you all-- I don’t want to live with that!”

“Scipio, you can’t even stand right now!” Iam_superman exclaimed, “If Kronos catches up to us, you’ll die.”

“And that will be just one more tally against us.” Piper finished.

Scipio glared at her with a look of pure disdain. But she didn’t seem to have an argument for it. Percy couldn’t find one, himself. His chest burned with a violently strong feeling he couldn’t place: somewhere between relief and jealousy. They could save one person.

Scipio glared at the ground, gritting her teeth together. “Please….” Her voice dropped, “Please don’t make me live with this, too.” Her fists were tight enough that Percy didn’t think she’d ever be able to open them again. 

The wind whistled through the tree eery and silent. Percy could almost convince himself that they had all the time in the world before Kronos found them on his map and arrived with his sword begging for another taste of their blood.

“Scipio--” Iam_Superman started but he swallowed the rest of the sentence.

“Are you nuts?!” Travis hissed at her, “The rest of us would kill for a chance! You don’t get a choice in this! Hawtstufz! Log her out now!”

“I--” Leo looked at a loss for words.

“Do it!” Thalia swung her spear again, threatening even though she was a good several feet away.

“Please,” Scipio said, “Don’t make me walk away again.” She looked up, training her eyes on Leo with an intense glare brimming with actual tears as if she was daring him to make fun of her. She didn’t stoop to beg him-- Percy got the impression she was far too proud to do that-- but her tone was that of someone who would do anything to avoid what was coming.

“I walked out when my father was beating my mother, even when I knew he was going to kill her. I walked out when my sister was receiving a similar punishment. He almost killed her, and I...I just covered my head with a pillow and prayed not to hear it!” Her voice rose, “Don’t make me do it again!”

She didn’t move as Leo walked forward. His step made no sound on the grass. He stopped about a foot away from her, “Listen to me,” He said, “I’m only going to say this once.”

“Leo-”

He ignored Charm4u with a flick of his hand and kept his eyes locked on the other girl’s.

“Life is not fair.” Leo said, “My mom and I lived in a stupid ass town, filled to the brim with stupid idiots because that was the only place my mom could get work, even with her masters in Computer Science. They burned down my house with my mom still inside it and she died and guess who they blamed for the fire? It sure as hell wasn’t the rich white kids who were high off their asses. And if that wasn’t enough, a few years later I accidentally ruined four people’s entire lives trying to make a stupid game better.” 

Leo swiped across his menu, turning his player name and health bar into white code. “When I die, I’m going to be remembered as that Latino Kid who killed a bunch of people and the figure head for why kids can’t be trusted with technology! The only reason I’m not dead or in jail yet is because of Piper! So I get it! Life isn’t fair! I’m going to Hell!”

“Leo!” Piper yelled, Percy didn’t think anyone heard her at all.

“Let me do this one thing, Scipio.” He said, “Let me save one person. Just so I can say that I tried.”

There wasn’t a hint of his joking face: It was the face of someone who had suffered a million times over. Percy felt his throat dry out, watching without daring to look away. He thought back to how Leo reacted to the Videotaping: how he had laughed and smiled and told every girl out there he was sorry he wasn’t going to be able to date them.

It hadn’t been just him either, it had been xClassicx too. ~AngelQue-- Nico’s sister….she had said there was no one either, which meant that Nico was truly alone. Annabeth hadn’t talked to her family in years, Frank had one person--

Had BlackMagic been right this whole time? Had Olympus picked them all because of how horrible their backstories were? Or their terrible homelives led them to how powerful they were now?

“Let me show you that not all hackers are bad.” Leo offered up a half smile to the other player.

“You’re all terrible,” Scipio said through gritted teeth but she nodded him permission to do it.

Without any more words, he turned to his white code of a menu and typed something that turned Scipio’s to code as well. It was quiet as they watched him work. Percy didn’t understand a key he pressed but he seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

“Percy.”

He looked up surprised at the sound of his name, especially from Scipio’s mouth. She wasn’t crying anymore, but her voice was welded with steel, “It is Percy, right? What’s your last name?”

“My what--why?” Percy started but Annabeth jumped in.

“Jackson, his name is Percy Jackson.” She said, “And I’m Annabeth Chase.”

Scipio nodded in acknowledgement, before turning to where Iam_Superman stood with his fingers rubbing his temples near Charm4u.

“What?” He asked, “Me? Jason. Grace.”

“Piper McLean?” Piper said, “Why…?”

“Because I want to know!” Scipio snapped, “Alright? Just tell me!”

El3ctric startled out a laugh, “Thalia Grace, that idiot’s older sister.”

“Frank Zhang,” Hannibal said, “And this is Hazel Levesque.” He nodded to xClassicx who seemed grateful to have him as her voice now. She shook watery tears from her golden eyes.

“Travis... Stoll.” Travis stared at the sky, “I’m not going to make it out, so just tell my girlfriend Katie--”

“Nico Di Angelo.” Nico cut him off, with a withering glare and a violent tongue. Percy thought for a moment he was radiating a darkness, but it could have just as easily been a trick of the game. Percy wouldn’t have put it past himself to have gone crazy by now.

“And you?” Scipio asked Leo quietly as if they all didn’t already know him as well as they recognized Piper.

He smirked, “I’m Leo. The Hawtest stuff you’re ever going to see.” He winked at her, as Scipio had to physically restrain herself from giving him a second black eye.

“Do not make this my last conversation with you.” She threatened.

“It’s Reyna right?” He said, “Don’t worry, RA-RA, we’ll make it out, if only so you can rightfully punch me in the face.”

“Fuck off,” She responded.

Leo pressed the final key in his memorized sequence. There was an impressive flash of red and purple where that nearly left them all blind. When it died down a message popped up over Scipio’s failing health bar. 

**Emergency Log Out enacted. Loading….56%, 58%, 67%....**

“Hey Scipio,” Leo called out. “Thanks.”

She nodded and the loading bar reached completion. Her figure flashed the same purple as before, and then, just as they all had come in the very beginning, Scipio dissolved right out of the game. Percy stared at the grass as it swayed back into place as if there had never been anyone standing on it at all.

They had started with fifteen players. Percy did a head count: they had ten now. Two were killed at the Assassin’s hand, Two kill at the players hands, and one forcefully hacked out. Percy squeezed his hands into fists.

“What now?” Hannibal asked after a moment, “What do we do?”

Somehow the rest of them had crowded themselves into a circle. Almost forcing each of them to look at each other. It took Percy a moment to realize Frank was looking at him. As well as Travis, and Annabeth and xClasssicx. Waiting for him to speak. His mouth went dry.

“I...I--”

“You had a plan, didn’t you?” Nico snapped. He was glaring at a rock nearby, his tone deafening by only the force of which he spit out his words.

“I…” Percy swallowed hard and gathered what strained out courage he had, “I had an idea…” He looked at the grass,and took a deep breath, “Look, I am not a stragestist! I’m barely qualified to even be here! This… I can’t lie. My plan is based completely on theory! But since I’ve started it, I’m going to go through with it the best I can. I very well could be walking to my death.”

“A-fucking-mazing pep talk, captain.” Leo clapped, “Please tell me you’re stopping while you are still ahead! Because I’m becoming less and less inspired to follow you as you keep speaking.”

Percy thought -Chasing- punched him, but he wasn’t sure and he wasn’t willing to check. He knew if he looked up, he’d see Nico, and he’d think of Tyson, and he’d lose whatever will he was holding on to. Another breath and Percy squared his shoulders.

And he told them the plan.

It was simple, so simple it was boredline just plain stupid. Percy kept his head down in the silence that followed. He could feel the weight the glares around him, like the calm before a thunderstorm.

“That….Percy…” Annabeth said, her voice tired as if she was running on nothing but steam for the third day in a row. “That is a lot of assumptions. They would never…”

“That’s fucking stupid.” El3tric shouted, “You are a dipshit! They’re the reason we are in this mess in the first fucking place!”

“I’m sorry, Percy,” Frank said, “I’m not sure this is--”

“I Get IT!” Percy shouted, “I told you! It’s stupid! That’s why I’m telling you to go now, why you still have time to leave! Kronos is coming here, and we are almost out of time. So just shut up! If you stay, If you leave… I’ll know what your answer is!”

Percy raised his eyes to look at them, even if this was the last time he was going to see them. 

“All we have left is each other.” He said, “The Titans took the game we all poured our lives into and turned it against us. They wrote the rules to kill us on live TV for the rest of the world to watch. We are battered and bruised and broken. I’m sure most of us have already thought about giving up-- I have!

“But I can’t! Because I have people out there waiting for me to wake back up, for me to take off this headset! I owe it to -AngelQueen- and Stargirl365 who died getting us to this part. We are never going to get a better chance at this!” Percy let his gaze shift from player to player, “I’ve never asked anyone to help me before. So make your fucking decision: Are you helping me, or are you going to keep playing the Titan’s game?”

“Percy--”

“Don’t say a Word! Either stay or Go!”

-Chasing- flinched away so violently, Percy wished he could take the words back. Her eyes were glistening with that ghostly gray, filled to the brim with so many emotions it was hard to remember if he was still in the game or seeing her in real life. He had followed her blog, reading so much of the words typed up on page it was hard to link them directly back to this beautiful terrifying girl before him. His first true online friend. 

She was, without a doubt, ten times smarter than him. If she refused to help him, Percy knew no one else in the group would. His whole plan hinged on her.

Annabeth Chase bit her lip and shook her head. Then following his order, she turned and ran from the clearing without another word


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy and Kronos have one final chat about failed plans and weaknesses.

 Percy had thought that maybe after having faced the golden haired, blue eyed assassin three times before and still managing to live, the fourth time might be a little less anxiety inducing.

It wasn’t.

He stood in the center of the clearing with his sword drawn simply because it felt better than with his hands empty. He glanced up at his menu, the white text something of a familiarity now:

**Riptide: Male, Swordsman**

**Health: 79%**

He was alone, but his nerves were racing. He refused to lower his guard, but his shoulders were beginning to ache from how tense they were. His mind kept playing the look on Annabeth’s face over and over as she ran away from him. It was the look of fear, something he knew from his own expression some days, the look he gave himself when he was wondering if he’d turn out the same way Gabe was; if he’d forget how to protect the things he cared about. 

-Chasing- fearing him was a dumb notion, even Percy knew that. But at the same time he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Was it possible that one day he’d turn into something she’d hate?

Was he already something she hated?

He glanced around the empty clearing again, before he reached up and pressed the map icon on his menu. The three dimensional plane popped up again with the grey icons floating across it. They were almost a comfort. Whatever anger he should have had for the other players was nonexistent anymore. 

Everyone wanted to live; no one wanted to die.

Percy thought back to Stargirl365. He hadn’t paid much attention to her when her team was announced as a competitor. At least not as much as he had spent for -Chasing- and >Stolls<. He never had any run ins with the Hunters Guild. 

But for some reason the girl had decided he was worth risking-- worth giving her life for. She had carried his dying form across the clearing, into the brush, despite the fact there was an assassin tailing her, despite the fact that his health bar was unsaveable, despite the fact that he was the weakest player in the Age of Heroes Tournament. 

What made him worth saving?

What had that girl seen when he stood on that rock, stuttering through a speech that made him look like an idiot? What had she seen that told her he was someone special?

He’d never once in his life had been something amazing. He let Gabe use him as a punching bag for years. He let his mother suffer through a marriage that could physically kill her. He pretended to get a job, and played video games at his friends house instead. He took advantage of Rachel’s willingness to babysit to gamble on the chance that a game was going to-- for some stupid reason-- solve all his problems.

He wasn’t anything. So why had she saved him?

“Aren’t you going to run away too, Percy?” 

The voice broke him from his trance, sending shivers down Percy’s spine. He wondered if that’s what the devil sounded like: a friendly tone, with a sharp edge. Kronos was leaning against a tree, mask and cloak discarded. He was unassumingly normal. Mistakenly normal.

He was still wearing the boots from before: the expensive type that Percy had only ever dreamed of seeing. They were splattered in a dark brown that could have been mud or blood. His clothes were the signature assassin's garb: Neat cotton cloth that didn’t make any sound when he moved, dyed the same color as an abyss. His scar was  pale against the flush of color in his cheeks, his eyes were drilling holes into Percy’s figure: as if he could kill him with just a look.

He spun a dagger in his hands, twisting it into his thumb only to prick the skin. He drew blood without putting any real pressure on it. 

Beside him, his health bar matched the vibrant greens of the leaves swirling on the branches.

“Why would I run away?” Percy responded, his tone jumping up and down. It ruined his attempt to be suave. “I’m ready for our rematch now.”

“A Rematch?” Kronos scoffed. “What made you so sure that I’d come after you and not anyone else?”

Percy smiled slightly. The tension was thick in the air it filled his head like a smog, but Percy thought maybe that was a good thing; it reminded him of the real world where smog was part of the city.

“Well, I figured after having failed to kill me three times,” Percy spun his own sword in his grip. “After twice being on live TV for everyone to see, I just thought maybe I’d give you another chance.”

Kronos raised an eyebrow, “You don’t know when to stop, do you.” There was a downward twitch of his lips and just for a moment, Kronos pulled back the fake persona to let his bloodlust show through. “I hate you so much.”

“I gathered.” Percy shrugged, “Not many people who love me, try to kill me so many times. But that’s not the only reason I knew you were going to come after me next.”

“Oh?” Kronos stepped into the clearing with all the noise of a shadow, “Do share.”

“I unlocked my Valiant Hero mode,” Percu motioned to his menu, where the new mode icon was glowing bright, “You knew that came with a message: an easily hackable one programed by Olympus. You probably thought they slipped in a message to us. And you’re right. They did.” Percy leveled his stance, “They told me exactly how to defeat you.”

Kronos pinched his smile into a look of anger. “What.”

“They weren’t obvious about it,” Percy said, “Because I don’t think Olympus could be obvious about anything, now could they? You see I kept standing here, trying to figure out why you went after the players you did: Me when I was standing on that rock, Stargirl365 when she was trying to save me, Imbetter when he and Imthebest were hiding in the Native American camp despite the fact that there were six of us trapped in a small building in the city. And then I started thinking about how you came after us in that same city; I thought it was because you were coming after me. Trying to clean up the mess you made once your outside hacker friends found out I was still alive.

“But that wasn’t it, was it?” Percy took a step to the side, measuring the distance between the two of them. “You didn’t come for me. You came for Leo-- Hawtstufz9.” 

Kronos’s eyes narrowed. Percy swallowed hard. “That’s because you had to get rid of the only players who could defeat you.”

“Defeat me?” Kronos laughed, but Percy wasn’t fooled. He tense, angry, and that was the same lethal combination for an explosion. 

“Yes,” Percy said, “It took me a while to figure out what the four of us had in common. And why I seemed to be your biggest problem. As you so wonderfully pointed out, I’m not the smartest crayon in the crayon box. 

“But when we unlocked my Valiant Hero Mode, the gamemakers sent me one single message: Powers are used better in Guilds. Isn’t that strange?” Percy took another step, forcing the words to come out, despite the fact they made his hair stand on edge. He was stalling, just stalling, but that was okay. No one could blame him, now.

“That's when it clicked. When it was one-to-one you're untouchable! I could slash and hack at you and your health wouldn't change a single percent. But….” Percy allowed himself a shake of his head, “But when I was near someone else, we could always injure you. In the city -Chasing- surprised you with an attack that knocked your health a few points, Hannibal and I managed to take a few points as well. I'm willing to bet the reason you didn't fish me out of that river was because Stargirl365 beat you so bad you needed a health pack to continue.

“You're weakness is the guilds and teams! We can only hit you when we team up, can't we? Stargirl365 and -AngelQueen-, Hawtstufz9 and Charm4u, Imthebest and Imbetter… they all shared guilds. And me...I was so dangerous because I wasn't any of those.” Percy squeezed the grip of his sword as he spoke, shifting his weight just enough. “I never had a team or guild or anything. I am a wildcard, which means anyone could team up with me.”

Percy didn’t see Kronos move, but his his instincts screamed. Without hesitation he swung his arms, the blood pumping adrenalin through his veins so strong he was sure they were going to burst. The metal of his blade exploded in sparks as Kronos’s sword met the one barrier.

The pleasantry of before was gone, lost in the swirling void that made up the other player. His blue eyes boiled with anger, drawing strength enough to force Percy’s feet back. Percy threw him off with difficulty and drew back enough to put space between them. He didn’t realize he was short of breath until he realized he couldn’t hear his thought over his own shallow breathing.

“Congratulations, Player Riptide!” Kronos laughed sarcastically, dipping his head to the left. The smile on his face was made of bloodlust and hatred. “You figured it out!”

He lunged forward again, and Percy dodged the whirlwind of attacked with difficulty. Everywhere he turned there was a blade and he met it only inches away from his body. His sword was an extension of his his body, but he wondered if he should have taken Travis’s sword before the other boy had left with the help of Iam_Superman. 

Percy yelped at the golden blade nicked his cheek, as fast and flighty as a papercut. 

“You are every bit a nuisance!” Kronos’s flicked his leg out, catching Percy by surprise --again-- when he feet tumbled from under him. His own bronze sword tumbled out his hand, but before he could even regain a breath Kronos was stepping in his wrist. Percy blinked and his blade was pressed against his throat. He choked on a scream and there was a knee on his abdomen.

“I am going to kill you, right here, Percy Jackson.” Kronos had turned his smile off, like the flick of switch. He was uncanny, but Percy thought maybe that he was more honest in this ugly hatred he showed than the fake smile and bone-chilling laughter. “Do you know the best thing about this stupid Tournament, Percy?”

Percy didn’t answer. His eyes locked on that stupid sword right above him. It was blinding in the sunlight; Percy could feel the heat of it, the sting of were Kronos was pressing it to his throat.

Kronos wasn’t deterred by lack of response. He leaned closer until he was right in Percy’s face, eyes as icy blue as rapids and twice as dangerous to look at. 

“The best thing about this Tournament is that with the head gear linked right to your brain, you feel every injury as if you actually were receiving it. Every. Broken. Bone.” Kronos leaned forward, but instead of driving his sword in, he put pressure on his knee: the one right over Percy’s chest.

“It’s funny.” Kronos said, even though there was no humor in his tone, “I never thought that I could survive falling fifty feet from the air, but even I amaze myself.” He jabbed his heel in Percy’s wrist, keeping him from squirming. “But there are far easier ways to kill people, don’t you know, Perseus?”

Percy’s breath was shallow; he was sure he was going to swallow his tongue rather than air. Cold sweat hung on the back of his neck, the roof of his mouth was so dry he wasn’t sure it would ever hydrate again.

“I know lots of ways to kill people.” Kronos said deliberately, “For example, if you surprise someone with a quick slash to the backs of their knees, cutting the tendons, it turns them to jello. Then you just have to drive your blade between the top of his spine and the skull: destroying the Medulla that keeps all survival instinct intact while his brother watches helplessly from the sidelines.

“Or! Or! You can take a more direct approach, where you faint an attack on her left side that she doesn’t catch fast enough and she’s left wide open for the dagger in your other hand that she doesn’t see. One quick swipe across her stomach isn’t enough though, but she’s too distracted by the pain-- no one ever thinks it will hurt that much-- to stop you when you bring your sword down like an axe. It’s harder than TV makes it look, especially with a mangled hand and the slices on your arm.” Kronos shrugs despite that, as if he were talking about the weather and not a human being that he stole the last breaths from. Like it wasn’t about a boy named Connor who had a brother named Travis, or a girl named Zoe who had saved Percy’s life. 

There was more anger in his gut than Percy thought was possible. There was a rage, that swamped over his exhaustion, his fears, his entire psyche. 

“Ooh,” Kronos whispered, “That’s an angry look. Did I hit a nerve Percy Jackson? Are you mad you couldn’t protect them? You know there’s no water here for you to control. Such poor planning.” 

Percy gritted his teeth, struggling to see through his own anger and the cold sweat that clung to his face. “You’re a Monster.”

“You don’t know half of it, kid.” Kronos smiled cold and ruthless. “You know what, I have a present for you!” Percy watched Kronos’s empty hand wave towards his menu where his health bar blarred an ugly green light. Percy thought that if he survived any of this, he’d hate the color green for the rest of his life: all the shades that made Kronos so horrifyingly intangible. 

He swiped the menu, bringing up the search bar for other players. The same one that Percy had been staring at what felt like decades ago. His sword was just out of reach…. if he could get Kronos a little more distracted--

**Search: Finding P_**

Percy couldn’t breathe and it had nothing to do with the sword on his throat or the knee digging between his ribcage like it could drill straight past the skin and bones and hollow out Percy’s heart.

“Speaking of things you like to protect, Percy.” Kronos spoke with more of that sickeningly blithe charm, “Say hello!”

The Video Call was answered, but it wasn’t by Grover. The room that Percy had grown to care as much about as his own was a mess. The camera was askew, peering at an angle from the floor. There was a tangle of wires, papers, the trash from Grover’s trash bin that he religiously took out every Sunday was scattered across the carpet. Grover’s crutches were nearby, uselessly out of place. The only thing untouched was the bed, where Percy could see his own body, pale and lifeless as his mind was absent.

Percy thought he’d rather his body be dead completely than to see the all too familiar form on the ground leaning next to the bed. The all too familiar curls, fallen over his closed eyes, the swelling bulge on his forehead looked like a softball-- unrealistic and impossible. One of his eyes were purpled, his cheek swollen, and blood was dried in a trail from the corner of his lip down his chin. 

Grover’s hands were duct taped together in tight gray bands, but his ankles were unbounded. Not that, that meant anything; it was a waste to bind the legs of a kid who couldn’t walk without crutches.

“Oh,” Kronos said with fake disappointment, “I hope they didn’t kill him. I wanted to.”

Percy kicked in anger, but Kronos was unmoving, his blade was sharp. Percy could feel it dig into his skin and take a drink of his bitter blood, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

“Oh, I guess I better turn the audio on shouldn’t I?”

Percy thought he had fallen back in time. His brain screamed that it wasn’t true, that he was right here right now, before his eyes, the entire world shifted: 

He was standing in the doorway, Tyson was too far away-- he should have known better than to be creeping around this late at night. Percy should have been more aware of what he was doing. Tyson-- Tyson! He was so small compared to the giant form, compared the the demon that towered over him with fists raised. No with one fist raised, holding a shining object that glinted in the moonlight. A bottle. It was flying. Tyson was on the ground crying, shattered glass looked like the stars--- 

Percy screamed.

Because in the here and now, it wasn’t a bottle. It was a knife. Imbedded in the headboard of the bed that wasn’t his.

It was Tyson pressed against the wall, and he was crying so hard his face had turned completely red. 

“Percy!” He screamed, “Percy!” His hands were wrapped in the silver duct tape. He was pushing himself as far away from the camera as he could: he was terrified. “Percy! Wake Up!”

One of his feet kicked the other Percy, the lifeless Percy, and he felt it as if Kronos had punched his blade right through his shoulder.

“Stop it!” Percy yelled, “Leave them alone!”

Kronos’s eyes shined. He turned up the volume.

Percy gritted his teeth pressing his head against the grass as if it could drown out the sound of his brother’s terror while he was helpless here. It was his fault. It was all his fault. He should have-- He never should have tried to join the Age of Heroes. He was no hero. What hero could help his own little brother?

What hero brought monsters into the houses of the people he loved the most?

“What do you... want... from me?” Percy whispered between gritted teeth. He was crying, sobbing really, without any breath to breathe, or thought to hold on to. How did he make it stop?

“You?” Kronos laughed, “I don’t want anything from you.” He pressed his weight into his knee, Percy felt his ribs starting to scream, starting to cave. “Let me tell you a little secret, Percy,” The assassin said. “I’m not doing this just because Olympus hurt my itty-bitty feelings. I knew going into it that I was nowhere near a match for the “Gods”. I asked for an internship and they accepted me despite what I told Thalia.”

“W-hy--?”

“Why do I hate them so much?” Kronos laughed, “Because they didn’t let me touch anything. I was an errand boy for them:  _ “Luke! Fetch me a coffee, will you?”, “Luke pick up my dry cleaning, Sweetie!”, “Luke get me a tissue to wipe my nose!”  _ And I was supposed to be happy with about it! I was supposed to be satisfied with the opportunity to look at them!” He’s teeth pressed together in a thin line.

“So I started my own project! A game I created in my free time! A code that could build whatever I wanted: a world where all magic in all forms and weapons and armors were accepted. Where they had an opportunity for the upperhand. I worked on it in my free time, on a computer that I built from scratch! I poured my soul into this idea!” 

Percy flinched as spit his his cheek. “THEY TOOK IT FOR THEMSELVES!” Luke Castellan screamed, “THEY STOLE IT FROM ME!” His arms shook from holding himself back. Percy could see the mania in his eyes, “I worshiped them! And they took advantage of that! They took everything from me and then fired me out of my internship! Then weeks later I hear about a tournament? Age Of Heroes? Where anyone had a chance to win?

“They took my board player board and gave it you worthless amateurs! My work! My life!” Luke yelled, “So I am going to take the one thing they cherished: their reputations. I’ll burn every good report they ever received, splatter their names crimes and scandals, and I’ll kill any stupid faithful follower who dares worship them after it! I’ll destroy all the virtual reality if I need to!”

Somewhere along the line, someone must have pulled the plug on Grover’s monitor. It had probably happened a long time ago: back when Percy decided standing against Kronos was the only option. He could see the cameras-- three of them--circling around them as silent judges. The world was seeing them again.

If Percy didn’t hate him as much as he did for killing, for hurting, for scaring his little brother, he feel bad for the man towering over him.

“I’m going to kill you, Percy Jackson.” Luke spit, “because you are just a blind follower of thieves and egomaniacs.”

Because Percy reminded him of himself. Because Percy was what Luke Castellan was once. 

“And once I’m done killing you, slowly-- after I break these ribs with just enough force to have them pierce your lungs and after they fill with your blood and you suffocate all alone without the breath to even call out to you little brother, and tell him it’s going to be alright one last time…. I’m going to kill Annabeth, and then that Valdez kid, and then the rest of them in all equally horrible ways. Then I’m going to remove my headset, and I am going to take my knives, and I’m going to reunite your brother with you MYSELF!”

Fifty Million Dollars for Tyson. Percy thought he wouldn’t have even known what to do with that much money. 

“It’s too bad you never joined a guild Percy,” Luke said, “Really, Multiplayer can be so much fun. It’s like being in two places at once. But I guess you’ve always like to play alone.”

And despite everything, Percy craned his neck to get a look at the assassin himself, his throat was slick with his own blood, his chest was screaming, his ears were grating with the sounds of his brother’s screaming for help. He stared down Kronos-- Luke-- whoever he was pretending to be, whoever he  _ wanted _ to be-- and Percy Jackson offer the sick son-of-a-bitch a smile.

“Who…” He asked, “ever said I was playing alone?”

The blue eyed boy had just enough time to look confused before a familiar dagger was thrust straight into his back.

Percy wasn’t sure what happened next. All of a sudden Kronos was off of him and he could breathe in completely. The Cameras were everywhere: circling like probes to get every angle of the fight that was happening around him. The video feed of Grover’s room was gone, as were the sounds of Tyson yelling.

The winds tore at the trees, and lightning crackled down from the sky. Then El3ctric and Iam_superman were there on either side of Kronos, with spear and sword drawn, and attacking. They were working together like they had never argued before in their lives. 

Kronos had a sword in one hand and dagger in the other, but he was still taken by surprise and he was barely holding his own. The wound in his chest leaked blood all over his fancy virtual clothes. 

Shadows danced under his feet, turning to water when the assassin stepped in them. Percy could see ~GhostKing~ with his arms raised just outside the line of trees. 

A bird swooped down from above talons stretched and it ripped across Kronos’s forearm. He cursed and batted the bird straight into Iam_Superman who fell over when it turned back into Hannibal. 

El3ctric yelled and swung at him, but Kronos easily blocked her and took a jab under her guard. His arm stopped short though by a powerful shout: Charm4u appeared dazzling and dangerous. Percy had never seen her power, but he had read about it: Charmspeak that could be used once against an opponent who wasn’t expecting it. El3ctric took advantage of Kronos’s brief confusion to knock him away again. 

The ground burst under him, shining with a million gems and rare rocks. They moved like water and buried him alive at xClassicx’s command.

Then Percy was staring up at -Chasing-. Her gray eyes were dark and unimpressed, “This was the stupidest plan I have ever been a part of.” She told him.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Percy responded hoarsely.

“I’m not sure if I want to punch you or kill you myself.”

“Can I choose?”

“N--”

“Hey! Chasetide!” Leo’s voice called over to them, “Less flirting, more doing the plan! Even Travis is doing more than you two!”

Percy grinned, although the situation was far from being fun and exciting. Imthebest was currently throwing rocks at the dirt pile Kronos was buried under. He was still too weak to stand on his own by the way he was leaning heavily on Hawtstufz9 who was setting the clearing ablaze with fist fulls of fire.

Kronos broke up from the ground, looking disheveled and murderous. Beside him his stats floated like a ghost: Percy thought they all were a little surprised to see his code in the red.

“How!” Kronos demanded.

“Didn’t I already tell you, jackass?” Percy yelled, “Your weakness is in guilds!” The assassin sputtered looking frantically from one player to the next. They were all the same: shining with a single simple icon next to their names: a Pegasus. A brand new guild, only a half hour old but had nine members.

“You were so busy fighting with me you never even noticed the change in the alliance of the others. -Chasing- made a new guild herself and you never even saw it coming.” Percy told him, “Now it doesn’t matter who I’m fighting with: I can team up with everyone.”

“And it’s double the damage!” Annabeth yelled with a triumphant smirk, “The Gods of Olympus might not care about anyone, but they really don’t like it when players break the rules,  _ Kronos _ ! They gave us all the upperhand that we could get!” 

His face turned red. The same color Gabe’s face would turn-- the same color it did turn when he threw that bottle at Tyson. “Upper Hand?” He snarled, “I’ll show you the upper hand--”

Percy blinked.

All the sound in the world was gone. Replaced by a silence that was so profound Percy barely noticed it at all. Annabeth had been standing beside him. Her hand had been in his-- somehow it had made it there without either of them realizing it. Then she was gone. Her grip broke, her nail scratched his skin, the force of the wind blew him in the other direction.

Kronos was standing behind him, with his blade to Percy neck again, pinning his arms to his side, and Percy’s sword knocked away.

“Teleportation!” Leo yelled, “Damnit! I didn’t--”

Kronos’s breathing was harsh in Percy’s ear, “Put down your weapons! Or I kill him!”

Percy tore at the restraint but Luke was just too much stronger than he was. Percy’s eyes fell around the stone faced group. Names, gamer and real, flashed at him like lightning.

He locked eyes with one single person. It wasn’t a question. Her head shook back and forth, but Percy knew she understood by the way her eyes flickered away.

“Drop them!” Luke yelled.

“Don’t!” Percy yelled. 

Annabeth screamed-- there was blood in her blonde hair. Piper was the only thing holding her back. Frank let go of his bow. Travis’s rock fell short. Hazel lowered her sword, gritting her teeth. Percy fought against Luke’s hold. He did not get them all the way here to get them killed. He did not come all this way to lose. 

One day they would understand, wouldn’t they? They only had this one chance to do it. 

He closed his eyes. Tyson would grow up one day. He’d graduate high school and everyone who ever told him he couldn’t do something with that faulty eye wouldn’t be able to touch him. His mother who finally get that divorce she had been too afraid to get before. She’d find the real “one” for her-- maybe an English Professor? Rachel would help Grover and his brother. Grover would get married to Juniper one day.

They didn’t need him for any of that.

He let his knees go weak, forcing Kronos to stumble with the excess weight. Percy rolled forward, spitting out his own blood as the golden sword sliced right through his neck. Every part of him screamed. Kronos tumbled over Percy’s back, twisting in a tumble of limbs. Percy wasn’t sure what part was him and what was Luke’s anymore.

Something clamped over his throat, trying to staunch the blood flow. But he knew it was too late to do anything about it. His mouth was full of the scarlet liquid, he couldn’t take another breath. He could think except for one thing:

He was the only thing keeping Kronos from Teleporting away.

“Do It!” He spit at the players. 

Thalia rolled forward before anyone else could move, scooping up Frank’s bow and she notched the arrow. Lightning crackled on her fingertips, charging the arrow with energy the way she did before with her spear.

“Thalia!” Luke wailed.

Her eyes were full of tears that glistened like the stars in the night sky. Annabeth broke free of Piper’s hold, running, but she was already too late. Thalia let go of the arrow.

And that was the last thing Percy remembered: white light exploding all around them and the world dissolving. Faded screams, a name that might have been his, an emptiness that definitely was. He found enough in himself to be quietly impressed with her power combo.

_ It looks like _ , Percy thought as he watched the brilliant blue sky shatter into the red  **Game Over** alarm,  _ a broken glass bottle. _


	17. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end.

The Grey Owls was a virtual reality blog run by Annabeth Chase, who had updated almost religiously every Tuesday and Thursday since it’s first posting straight up until the day of the Age of Heroes Tournament. It was a public forum, for the most part, where anyone and everyone could convein to talk about anything and everything to do with virtual realities.

She had tutorials on on fighting, on leveling up, on certain easy quests. She checked her inbox regularly for questions she could answer involving procuring certain items, fighting certain player trolls, and invites to raiding parties that she never joined. She kept a day-by-day blog of her game time, which often breached the realm of unhealthy amounts of time in game without breaks, as well as breakdowns of the fighting style of some more powerful players.

If you had a question the one person to go to was -Chasing-.

However, her blog was not the only place to get information.

In fact, you could go almost anywhere to get information on what happened that summer. The world was aflame with the news. For a good long year it the was only thing anyone could talk about: How safe were virtual realities anyway?

At about one in the afternoon, all the TV stations had been cut off from the daily programing and siphoned right back into the horror show that everyone had already been thinking about anyway. All the world had watched what had happened that day. 

The video feeds were all over the place: easy to find and with great quality. It started with a disturbed blond man, holding a sword over a black haired teenager. It started with an explanation on why he had decided to kill everyone.

The full blown investigation into Olympus Gaming System started the next day.

The fight itself was nothing short of amazing when looked at from the outside. A team of very powerful individuals, a guild made of the best of the best, who had joined the game at one point to fight each other but now fought side-by-side. The Pegasus Symbol was the most sought after joke of all:

Leo Valdez explained in an interview months after the incident (They always called it an incident-- as if it was a misunderstanding and not a murder spree).  _ “I chose the name, although it’s Chase’s guild. She told me she couldn’t type and run. I thought Demigods was a good name, because we were what the Gods of Olympus made us, right? Nine sexy motherfuckers with abilities beyond average who probably won’t get a real happily ever after.” _

No one beyond the original nine were accepted into the guild.

But who could blame them? Time Magazine did a whole article on the Stoll Brothers: with several intrusive photos of Connor Stoll’s grave and Travis Stoll crying over it and his girlfriend Katie punching a reporter in the face. 

Most of the players refused to put on their headsets again. Hazel Levesque even sold hers for 1.5 million dollars which she used to fund the failing art program at the high school she went to. Her charity fund reached all corners of the globe, reviving the liberal arts in her passion for them.

Reyna dropped a comment about needing to stay in a world were she could make a difference. She opened her own business, with help from her sister that traded gaming systems, games, and fixed up anything that linked to the internet, with her two employees: Leo Valdez, who had also been working non stop on a side project for Olympus since the tournament, and Frank Zhang, who was studying to become a history major on the side. 

There were several scandalous photos of Piper McLean’s new boy toy: a fair skinned, blue eyed heartthrob by the name of Jason Grace. They spent a few weeks each on the cover of most glossy magazines. Thalia Grace had collected them and pinned them up on her walls with a smirk. No one was sure what she was doing. 

(Some liked to gossip that she put a large donation towards the studies into the mental health of teenagers. But the money was from a Zoe Nightshade so there is still some debates.)

Nico Di Angelo disappeared from public eye after the first week out of the game. His passport was activated and he left the country on a journey to find… something. No one save Hazel and Thalia had heard from him since.

A year after the AOH tournament, Olympus Gaming System shut down it’s servers. The backlash from the game and what it could do to (pushed mainly by the Nakamura and Castellan families) overwhelmed the creators and the lawyers and every sensible mother that ever existed. The Stock prices plummeted and the “Gods” went bankrupt within months.

For those that dug deeper, they would find a short clip of Grover Underwood who, while drawing strength from a pretty girl on his arm, explained to reporters what had happened that afternoon at his house: How he and Rachel had been watching Tyson Jackson while Sally Jackson was talking to the police, how several large men had broke down the door and locked Rachel in a separate room before knocking him unconscious. He smirked when he spoke of how Rachel had broken out of the room and taken on three men twice her height and thrice her weight with nothing but a hair brush, memories of old self defense classes, and a shit ton of luck.

If you went far enough, you could even find a the deleted account that was Kronos: where a blond haired avatar with welcoming blue eyes apologized for discontinuing his blog and promised to have a link to the new one up in a few short days.

The Grey Owls blog was certainly not the only place to find information on what had happened in the AOH tournament. Most of the world had watched what had happened on live TV. They had seen Percy Jackson tell Thalia Grace to kill him to save herself, they had watched both of the players dissolve into data particles and they had stared at the TV long after it had auto switched off the interruption and gone back to its daily programing.

Annabeth Chase had never missed an update before. But that Tuesday, she didn’t update. Nor that Thursday. Or any of them after that.

Her inbox flooded with questions on what had happened, on if Percy had lived, on if she was alright, on if she was willing to do an interview on TV, on and on and on.

She didn’t read any of them.

It was a year and a half before she updated again. Her fans were thrilled at the notification: they thought she had psychoanalysed Kronos, or written a autobiography on what had happened in the game. They thought she was going to give them new information.

_ “I joined Olympus because it was an escape.”  _ She wrote instead.  _ “Because I could be anything and anyone when I put on the head gear. In here, I was a well known player: I kept a blog. My ability to take apart a defense was useful. I could help less experienced Players. I had more achievements than almost any other player. _

_ “But in the real world, I had run away from home because my step mother had told me I was useless, Iived on the streets, stole what I couldn’t buy, and looked out for only myself. I used a headset from the Library until I had earned enough money through the game to buy my own headset. In both worlds, everything I had gotten I had earned. I thought I would never need anyone else. _

_ “Then I met a boy with raven black hair and eyes as green as seaweed. He had all the braincells of actual seaweed. I had never seen someone fight so much. He still smiled even when things were hopeless. Still thought clearly when the pressure was sure to kill him. He looked at everyone as if they were something special, something worth protecting, something worth giving his life for. _

_ “He didn’t believe he had any friends beyond two people. He loved his family more than he loved himself. He didn’t know this, but he drew people to himself: Me, Leo Valdez, Frank Zhang, Travis Stoll...You can ask anyone who was in that game and they will tell you the same thing. _

_ “His name was Percy Jackson. He was a stranger. But I would have given anything to have met him in any other time of my life: When I had first run away and needed his hope, when I had first put on a headset and needed his enthusiasm, when I decided to join AOH and needed a partner. Even now after it all has happened, I wish I had met him in a coffee shop somewhere, smiling as he recognized me from the news with his eyes still glowing a warm green from a life that hadn’t been a living Hell.  _

_ “I know how selfish that sounds. I have spent a year and a half trying to make it sound less selfish. But it’s only fair that I tell the truth here and now. He shared all his secrets and they killed him. If I can’t give up one of my own, what does that make me? _

_ “I will be taking some more time off. I had forgotten what the difference between a real sky and a virtual one was. It’s time I relearn that. Maybe one day you’ll find me in the virtual world again: There have always been more places than just Olympus. But for now I think I’ll go...home.” _

A few days after her last post, a picture was posted in the comments section of the blonde hair gamer curled up on a couch with a small brown haired four year old in her lap, by some account by the name of “Finding Pan”.

 


End file.
